Starfox Chronicles: The Veldtian Conflict
by Tonywolf
Summary: Rated M. Content Descriptors: Strong language, graphic violence, sexual content. R&R please, and be constructive, tell me what I can fix. Has been revised slightly.
1. Hiatus

The Following is a slightly modernized StarFox, so please, keep an open mind

The story will, also be told from many perspectives... except one...

and remember, things aren't always as they seem...

Below is a listing of the countries and their armaments for reference purposes, this page can be skipped.

The Neo Lylat war Circa: 2756-2760, Nations

Aerian Republic of Corneria

Area: 15,000 square miles

Capital City: Corneria City

Government: Democratic, three branches Executive, Legislative, Judicial

Leader: President James A. Eldrich

Economy: Capitalist

Language: English

Military (From Largest to Smallest):Cornerian ARMY, Cornerian Planetary NAVY (CPN), Air Force (ARAF), Aerian Republic Coast Guard, Cornerian Marine Corps (CMC)

Small Arms:

Rifles

CBR-14SD 9x39mm SS

CBR-15OICW 5.56x45mm

CMR-C68 5.7x51mm caseless

CPR-C1 Pulse rifle Ionized Inert Gas Ar, Kr

Shotguns

CPAS-12 12g Dual Action

CS-1014 12g Dual Action

SMGs

CMP-5 9x19mm Parabellum

Pistols

CT-1 blaster, Ionized Inert Gas He, Ne

CT-1 Mk 1 mod, 0 10x7mmSS

Match Grade and Antimaterial Rifles

CSPR-1 Mk 11 mod 0, 5.56x45mm Match (select fire, F/A B S/A)

CSR-16 Artemis, 7.62x54r Match (semi-auto)

AM-95, 12.7x99mm AP (bolt action)

AM-82, 12.7x99mm AP (semi-auto)

CLR-12 Blast Cannon Ionized Inert Gas Kr, Xe, Rn

High Explosive

CGL-203 40mm HE (Single load, Mounted)

AM-90 25x99mm Payload (Single load, Mounted)

ANM-15 Thermite grenade

M-168 HE grenade

Antipersonnel

M-167 Frag grenade

WP-1 White Phosphorus grenade

Mk 11 Satchel charge; Composition C-4

Mk 12 Claymore Mine

Anti Tank

CRR-10 MAAWS 40mm Multi Purpose Laser Guided Missile

XSR-120 25mm Coilgun

Anti Air

CRR-10 MAAWS 40mm MPLGM

SA-1 Stinger

Atmospheric AircraftDesignation

XF/A-3c "Delta Wyvern" Multirole Stealth

V-36 "Dolphin" VTOL Dropship

AVG-36 "Tigershark" VTOL Gunship

A-11 "Razorback"Close Air Support / Attacker (ARAF)

F/A-3a "Wyvern"Multirole (ARAF)

F-2 "Gyrfalcon"Fighter (ARAF)

F/A-24 "Kestrel" Multirole (CPN)

F-17 "Kite" Fighter (CPN)

F-23 "Peregrine"Interceptor (ARAF)

B-3 "Maelstrom"Stealth Strategic Bomber (ARAF)

C-90 "Nomad"Transport (ARAF)

KC-90 "Aerotanker"Refueler (ARAF)

CE-767 "StratoCom"AWACS

Spaceflight capable craft

SF/A-1 ARWINGMultirole

SF/A-2 ARWING IIMultirole Stealth, Coffin cockpit

XF/A-3b "Super Wyvern"Multirole Stealth, Coffin cockpit

Asher AsFX-01 LYCANTHROPEUnclassified, Coffin cockpit

CRS-20 "Prometheus"Aircraft Carrier (Orihalcum)

CSAS-10 "Spearhead"Multirole Carrier / Frigate / Transport (Lynx, etc)

AORS-30 "Longinus"Cornerian Orbital Defense Platform, Space based Abel cannon

Land Based (Most of these are Aerian army only)

SM-2 LANDMASTER IILight assault tank

M-1A2MBT "Pepper"Main Battle Tank

M-2IFV "Robinson"Infantry Fighting Vehicle

M-3APC "Mercator"Armored Personnel Carrier

ARTY-102 "Latitude"Self Propelled Artillery Cannon

ARTY-101Self Propelled Artillery Magazine

ML-20 "Archer"Self Propelled Cruise Missile Launcher

VMS-7a "Vindicator"Self propelled Vindicator Surface to Air Missile Launcher

VMSR-7b "RVindicator" Self Propelled Vindicator Straight Flush Radar

Abel Cannon, Stationary selective caliber magnetic propelled massdriver.

CFCombat Frame, Fighter, Bipedal Battle Mech / Walker family

ASFArmored Support Frame, Support, Quadrupedal battle Mech / Crawler family

Union of Veldtian Socialist Republics (Veldtia, Espania, Zakat, Asea)

Area: 23,000 square miles

Capital City: Kaznoph

Government: Communist, mildly democratic.

Leader: Premier Johannes A. Khrushchev

Economy: Communist

Language: All: English, Espania: Spanish, Asea: Deutsch, Veldtia: Karelian, Zakat: Arabic

Military (From Largest to Smallest): Veldtian Army, Hand of Veldtia, Veldtian Air Force

Small Arms:

Rifles

FBR-10 7.62x39mm

VG-3 7.62x51mm

VG-36c 5.56x45mm

VMG-136 5.56x45mm LMG

Shotguns

Vega-10 12ga

Vega-JACKHAMMER 12ga

SMGs

FMP-8SD PDW 5.7x19mm SS

VMP-7a2 4.6x20mm

Pistols

FP-12 .45cal

Match Grade Rifles

ZakM-20 20x85mm AM (Single load, bolt action)

VSG-1 7.62x51mm Match (Semi-auto)

ZakSM-21SD 12.7x97mm SS (Semi-auto)

VG-3SL9 5.56x43mm SS Match (Semi-auto)

High Explosive

SMAW-3 40mm

Anti Tank

Anti Air

(All Vukhoi craft are able to execute the Cobra maneuver, while the Drakhen can do a complete flip and remain in level flight.)

Atmospheric Aircraft

Mikoyan Lairiovich MiL-22 "Cutlass"Short range fighter

Mikoyan Lairiovich MiL-28 "Claymore"Long range Fighter

Mikoyan Lairiovich MiL-34 "Falchion"High speed Interceptor (Fastest fighter aircraft)

Vukhoi Vu-27 "Falkhen"Interceptor

Vukhoi Vu-32 "Gripen"Close Air Support / Attacker

Vukhoi Vu-35 "Super Falkhen"Multirole

Vukhoi Vu-37 "Drakhen"Advanced Interceptor (Most maneuverable aircraft)

Tukholev Tu-95 "Kodiak"Strategic Bomber

Tukholev Tu-120 "Atronoch" Stratofortress

Falkholev Fa-10CTransport

Falkholev Fa-10KC "Extender"Refueler

Falkholev Fa-10E "Strategist"AWACS

Yakholev Yak-60 "Jackal"V/STOL Dropship

Yakholev Yak-70 "FoxHound"V/STOL Gunship

Spaceflight capable craft

XF/A-49A WOLFEN Multirole

Vukhoi Vu-40 "Raven"Unknown

Vukhoi Vu-43 "Dark Omen"

Mikoyan Lairiovich MiL-144 "Longsword"Interceptor

Tukholev Tu-01 "Merlon"Aircraft Carrier

Tukholev Tu-0X "Apocalypse" Orbital Nuclear MIRV Missile Carrier / Launcher

Falkholev Fa-0X "Armageddon"Orbital Ion Cannon

Land Based

T-100 "Combatant"Main Battle Tank

IFT-60 "Golem"Infantry Fighting Vehicle

BMP-90 "Blockade Runner"Armored personnel carrier

SCD-80 "Missileer"Self Propelled Long range missile launcher, SCUD system

SCD-90 "V2"Self Propelled ASAT/ICBM launcher.

MLRS-10 "Rocketeer"Self Propelled Multiple Launch Rocket System

MLRS-10G "GRocketeer" Self Propelled Multiple Launch Guided Rocket System

MLRS-10MSelf Propelled MLRS Magazine

CGT-1 "Sniper"Coilgun Tank/ Magnetic Accelerated Cannon Tank

WPWandrung Panzer, Fighter, Bipedal Battle Mech / Walker family

QWPQuadrupedal Wandrung Panzer Support, Quadrupedal Battle Mech / Crawler family

Marche Au Dementia (Religious Zealotry, Language: English, Saurian, Dementian Telepathy)

MAD-0X "Aurora"Unclassified, Transparasilica Coffin cockpit (Cockpit can become opaque, and transfer over to an omni-directional interface which emulates a clear glass canopy VIA multiple cameras embedded in the Transparasilica.)


	2. Prologue and Chapter 1: Grey Assassin

Disclaimer: Starfox is copyright to Nintendo… not me… only Nicolae Anthony and his brother Xavier Anthony belongs to me.

A/N: there is something called the crucible, that's the final test before deployment in the military.

Prologue and Chapter One: Grey Assassin

"Goodbye old friend…" A grey fox said coldly; holstering his covert pistol. He looked at the slouching corpse of an iguana who held a blaster in hand; a small trickle of blood ran down his forehead and a small hole in the chair where his head was when he was shot. The fox dug into the chair that the iguana was sitting in, taking care not to leave prints, and removed the bullet.

He then left the mansion's premises as if nothing had happened; took a laptop out of his pack and hooked it to his cell phone. He hacked into the mansion's security database and wiped the videos clean, then replaced them with mock ups, and then he put his laptop up, and walked off.

--- Thirty minutes earlier ---

A tall, grey vulpine clad in a black trench coat, shirt, pants, gloves, and a backpack walked into the mansion that belonged to his former client Leon Powalski, he panned his eyes across the luxurious main hall. Its sterling silver, diamond embedded, chandelier which hung from a central stained-glass canopy window gave the hall a unique grandeur, the diamonds that rested in it broke and scattered the light from the window about the massive hall.

He looked at the western wall, which was covered with many marble sculptures, and precious pieces of art, he then looked to his right. The eastern wall was adorned with antiquities, old weapons from past wars, as well as a large golden statue of a great warrior from early history.

His eyes then locked straight ahead, he ignored the skillfully crafted fireplace, and instead looked upon a red, leather chair, a small stream of tobacco smoke rose from behind it.

"I see you've come, Nicolae, another job maybe?" Leon said, as he sat in his leather chair, puffing on a very well crafted pipe. Nicolae walked up behind him and looked about the room again "I see my services have granted you wealth Mr. Powalski…"

Leon sighed, "I told you to call me Leon, Mr. Anthony, anyway." He took a puff of his pipe "Have a seat…"

"I'll stand Sir…" Nicolae said with cold, but friendly voice…

"Cigar?" Leon held up a fine quality cigar. "It's Saurian…"

"No thanks… I don't smoke." Said Nick, he was now standing to the right of Leon.

"I see…" He put it back into its case, "So you must be here looking for services…"

"No… not at all…" Nicolae slowly walked in front of Leon, his hand slipped a silenced custom unregistered 10mm pistol from his trench coat and aimed it directly at Leon. "You do know that it's nothing personal, comrade"

"I see…" Leon took his pipe, extinguished it, and tapped the ashes out. "But before you kill me, might I ask who hired you old chap." Leon put his pipe into his robe, and grabbed his hidden blaster; he inched out the small, but deadly weapon, hoping that Nicolae wouldn't notice.

"You know him well…" He cocked the hammer back, and engaged the slide locking mechanism so the shell wouldn't eject and expose him to ballistic residue. "He's an avian by the name of Lombardi…"

"Well… that is who the assignment was going to be, so be it… guess he hired you first" In a fluid movement, Leon had trained the blaster on Nicolae, but he was too slow, the last thing he saw was a small muzzle flash, then darkness.

--- A week later, Corneria City---

Krystal was sitting at a diner, looking at the wings that she had just earned after her training in the naval air academy. "I never would have thought I could make it this far…" she said to herself, "I hope Fox didn't bribe the instructors to pass me…"

Fox burst through the door, and immediately ran to her "Congratulations Krys! I heard that you passed the Crucible with flying colors!" He gave her a rather tight hug. "That makes you the second member to pass it…" Fox scratched his head; Falco had passed the crucible but not Fox, he thought that it wasn't that important so he never took part.

"C'mon fox, now you're embarrassing ME…" Krystal's fur had a slight red tinge, she was used to embarrassing Fox by showing public affection on the flight deck, while all the other trainee pilots pointed and laughed. They joked that Krystal was getting all her points and grades from Fox's bed rather than the cockpit; they always picked on the female cadets.

"Hmph…" Wolf O'Donnel, sat in a secluded part of the diner. "Hey Panther… You know that girl that McCloud is talking to?"

"Not sure whom you are talking about… let me see" He turned around, "Hmm… a very lovely young woman…" He stared at Krystal

"Hey!" Wolf snapped Panther out of his trance "You think that's McCloud's girl…"

"I would say so…" Panther turned to face Wolf, and sipped on his soda "It's not really our concern…"

"If that's his love interest then I finally have a way to make him suffer for all these years…" Wolf glared at Fox "I want to see his life crumble before him…"

"What of all of his trainees then…" Panther said. "Fox is helping train new pilots until another job arises."

"Heh" Wolf's face twisted arrogantly "I know a way, but we won't be able to show our faces here again…" He looked at Krystal "As for her… heh heh, I've got something better."

Panther raised an eyebrow "Here we go again, first Zoness, then Fortuna, and now Corneria, where we gonna be wanted next? Macbeth?" he let out a sigh and got up.

Wolf left the tip, and they went out of the doors, ignoring Fox and Krystal, as the two cleared the diner Wolf whispered "When Fox is out training his nuggets, we'll go in, blast them out of the sky, and leave for Katina. I'll get in touch with a certain contact to deal with Her..."

"If General Pepper doesn't have the Cornerian Army and Navy after us, that is." Panther cut in "Those starships are quite the nuisance… and isn't this a little underhanded for revenge?"

Wolf spat, and didn't say anything. He just kept walking.

Panther let out a heavy sigh, and followed Wolf

So what do you think…? (I'm sleepy so I'll stop here) I'll update in a few days more than likely.

Note: I'll be introducing two new twin G-diffuser engine advanced strike fighter models in the next chapter, the XF/A-3b Super Wyvern, and the F/A-WOLFEN3 as well as Ensign, Xavier. This story will also switch between the two brothers.

And please bear with me, this is my first Fic.


	3. Chapter 2: Wolfen

Disclaimer: Starfox is copyright to Nintendo… not me… only Nicolae, and his brother Xavier belong to me, as well as other added characters.

A/N: I have a concept drawing of the Super Wyvern, (drawn by moi 3) here: Two: Wolfen

Fox walked down the tarmac, an almost disappointed look on his face, 'I almost lost that kid…' he thought.

Krystal walked from her Arwing, and met him as he walked toward the number 7 fighter. "What's wrong?" she asked.

"He almost got himself killed." They walked up to the fighter.

The wings were forward swept variable geometry wings that connected to two large delta wings, and two canards protruded out of the fuselage just in front of the solid cockpit. The cockpit canopy was two solid aluminum armor plates that had cameras positioned all about it, just below the cockpit there were Vulcan cannon ports on both sides of the fuselage. At the rear were two, thrust vectoring G-diffuser systems, connected directly to them were the elevator flaps, on the bottom there were two concussion missile bays in front of each of the side landing gear bays, a Cold Fusion bomb bay below where the cockpit is on the underside, and twin plasma cannons. Near the nose of the fighter was a plasma charge launcher, and vernier booster ports were scattered about the fuselage and engine cases.

As fox walked around the fighter he notices some blood on the ground, and he peered around, knowing where it came from.

A white furred vulpine, in a green flight suit, leaned on his fighter, his nose bled and he was sore all over. "Hello Fox" He said in a low tone, as he wiped the blood from his face. "Something bothering you sir?" he looked up toward McCloud, whose face twisted with anger.

"Kid, what did I tell you about flying like that?" He spoke sternly

"You specifically told me not to." He glared at fox as he walked closer "Sir I had it under…"

"The hell you did Ensign! I saw your fighter freeze while you succumbed to G-LOC, The blood on your face is proof that you blacked out!" Fox was yelling in his face like a drill instructor. "Dammit Kid I'm serious, you keep flying like that, and you'll die very soon!"

"Instructor McCloud, he's trying his best to be at the top of his class." Said a young feline trainee, Ensign Kamille 'Koneko' Fera almost inaudible. "Why don't you see that he's trying to impress you? Tony isn't trying to make you angry."

"Seriously man, I'd kill to have his reflexes." Said Ensign, Lyle 'Boomer' Maynard, another one of Fox's nuggets, "I can't even maneuver my fighter like Anthony can."

Fox fell silent, and turned toward the growing group of trainees. He noticed that they looked sullen.

"Fox, you really shouldn't be jealous" Said Krystal, she looked into Fox's eyes "Xavier is the shining star of this small group of pilots, everyone looks up to him." She and fox watched as his nuggets asked Xavier numerous questions, how he flies like he does, whether he's okay, and such.

Fox let out a heavy sigh, "I know, but he takes too many risks…" he looked at his watch. "Well that next sortie is in a few minutes, General pepper wants me to wrap this up, so I've called in Falco to help me with this, speaking of which, he should have been here by now." He looked at Xavier, who was smiling and conversing with his companions "I hope that kid can take the stress of a live fire exercise"

"You're in charge of the crucible this time?" Asked Krystal

"No, I'm going up to watch my nuggets. Falco is the instructor this time." He put his hand on her shoulder "Come with me, so if one of the trainees has trouble, you can guide him back down."

"Okay Fox" She walked toward her Arwing. "I'll see you in the air."

"Alright" he said, he then turned toward his trainees "Yo, Nuggets!"

An Arwing came into view, on a course to sonic boom the base. "Heh heh… sorry I'm late" Falco said to himself.

Fox continued, "I don't have time to brief you in the main room but your fighters are going to be loaded with live ammunition for this next part of the trai..." Fox suddenly ducked as Falco flew past. No one heard him as he was coming, but the silence became a deafening roar as he passed and banked left. "Goddamn it!"

"Hey Fox, so what did you think about that?" Falco's arrogant voice came through McCloud's communicator. "Did I scare you?"

"Falco! It's about time you got here." He put the communicator back.

"Well I'm glad to see you too…" He said sarcastically

McCloud ignored that remark "Well, as soon as you're loaded get ready to get back in the air, this is your final test." Fox cleared his ears "Let's move!"

The tarmac suddenly crowded as workers moved in, carrying ammunition, coolant, and fuel rods. The pilots scrambled to their fighters, and strapped back in, some eager for another sortie. As each Super Wyvern was loaded, they began to taxi to the runway, their fully laden fighters too heavy for vertical take-off

All of the fighters lifted off one after the other until one was left, Xavier's. "Hey Kid, you gonna be alright?" asked one of the flight crew, "Yeah I'll be fine." He answered, "Okay then good luck Kid!"

He taxied to the runway and positioned the craft on the center line. As he waited for clearance to take off, he checked to see if his control surfaces were working correctly, like he always does. "Alright I'm good" he said to the tower. He opened his canopy, and rendered a salute to the ground control officer. The officer returned the salute, he closed the canopy. "Alright Kid, you're cleared for take-off." His radio spouted.

As soon as he heard that message, he pushed the throttle to maximum. Dust was blown into the air behind the sleek aircraft; and then he let off the gearbrake. The warplane catapulted forward, picking up speed. Xavier watched the airspeed indicator, "160… 190… 250!" He then pulled on the stick, making the plane suddenly pitch up sharply, and lift off the ground.

---Meanwhile over the Orion Ocean---

"Alright "Kilo"… so we're still missing one trainee?" Falco asked the other instructor in charge of Bravo squad, Captain Aaron 'Kilo' Owens.

"Yes sir, which is number seven, Ensign…" He thought a moment "Oh, yeah… Ensign Xavier Anthony, Callsign 'Kid'" the Captain then spoke in a lower tone, almost disappointed, "That's strange, he never misses a sortie."

Fox, who was observing Bravo squad, said "Yeah, I know…"

The comm channel from number twelve beeped in, on Kilo's radio "Yes Koneko?"

"Sir" the voice of the young feline came through the comms, "I've picked up Tony's, I mean Kid's IFF signal, he's coming in from bearing 020, distance 5 kilometers and closing."

"Understood," Kilo acknowledged, then spoke to Falco "Falco, Kid is in your hands when he gets here."

"Yes Captain."

"Don't be too rough on him." Krystal told Falco.

"Alright Krystal" Falco then thought for a second; then he had an idea, "I'm going to test him… Ensign Fera, what's his position in my squad?" said Falco.

"Sir, he's on the starboard side of the squadron, next to 'Boomer'" she answered.

"Well his position just changed, I want to keep an eye on him. Hey Boomer." Falco said into the radio.

"Yeah?" Boomer replied, he was always talking to people as if they were at his level. "Do you need anything?"

"Yes, Take the trail position behind me. I want a symmetrical formation, and Fera, ahem Koneko" he said.

"Yes sir"

"Take position on my starboard flank." Falco ordered.

"Yes sir." She backed off the throttle, and lagged behind. As soon as she was clear she banked right, then banked back left as she got behind her new position then accelerated to take her place in the formation, "In position." She reported.

"Good" Falco then sent a transmission to Kid, who was now, less than 500 meters away. "Are you this, Kid that I've been hearing about?"

"Yes sir" He took his usual position.

"I'm your instructor for the exercise, Falco Lombardi. Now my first order to you is to take your position in the formation."

"I'm already there sir." He answered

"Your new position, on my port flank," Falco said to him, "Hurry up."

"Yes sir…" Kid immediately banked right but still matched the speed of the formation.

"Where the hell are you going? I said on my Port side!" Falco yelled, but Kid didn't answer.

Fox watched Kid closely, _What are you planning to do now?_ He thought.

Kid leveled off, and then suddenly banked left, but only a little. Kid drifted toward the formation.

"Kid, Port side, NOW!" Falco was beginning to fume.

"Heh… be patient" Kid said to him.

"What are you doing Tony" Koneko was getting worried.

"Don't move." Kid said. It looked like the two were going to crash but he suddenly flipped upside down, and yawed over Koneko, and Falco.

"Damn… that's sweet" Boomer said in disbelief as he watched Kid literally fly within feet of the two fighters.

When he reached his position he rolled and leveled off "I'm in position instructor."

_That had to be luck _thought Falco; _I've never seen or done __**that**__ before._

"You ok Koneko?" Kid asked her.

"Yes… I'm okay" she shuddered, "Where'd you learn that?" she asked.

"Movies." He answered jokingly.

"Tch, Kid, you scared the hell out of me, don't do it again." Falco said "But I'll admit it; that was damn impressive!"

"Hey guys, I'd hate to break it to you but how long until the crucible?" Boomer asked, rather uneasily.

"A few minutes, Why?" said Falco.

"Cuz, I'm seeing two bogeys on radar, closing fast."

The two fighters, F/A-WOLFEN3s, were closing distance.

"I see them too, Kilo, you catching this?" Falco asked.

"Yeah, I see 'em too."

"Tally-ho on the bogeys, I have a visual" Said Krystal "That's in interesting fighter, X shaped wings."

"McCloud…" A voice boomed through the comm channels.

"O'Donnell, where in seven hells have you been?" Fox asked Wolf.

"That doesn't matter; prepare to defend yourself." Wolf then changed frequencies after the ultimatum, "Panther, Go after the Squad with two Arwings, the lone one is Fox."

"Yes sir." He sped ahead.

"Everyone, break formation, they're hostile!" Fox said

"Shit! Scatter, and head into the clouds!" Kilo ordered both squads, "Do it NOW!"

The two formations broke up.

"You won't get away…" Panther locked onto Boomer's fighter.

"Damn, radar spike." Boomer hit the accelerator, and tried to scram for the clouds. He suddenly felt the aircraft lurch violently. "Am I hit!?" he then was seeing red plasma bolts and tracers fly past him. "Damn it!"

Panther got a solid lock onto Boomer "Wolfen two, Fox 3" A radar guided concussion missile flew from a pod, careening toward his wounded fighter.

"Boomer, Missile! Break!" Krystal shouted.

"What!?" Kid looked at boomer's wounded fighter, the missile closed fast.

"C'mon" Boomer tried to bank left, but came to the grim realization that his starboard canard was damaged, "Damn, gotta pull up!"

"Sorry, but I can't let you do that." Panther fired his vulcans and plasma cannons ahead of Boomer, cutting him off.

"Shit." The missile struck Boomer's fighter in the port side engine, sending the fighter into a tight roll. "Damn, ejecting" He blew the canopy, and the seat shot out like a cannon, The fighter plummeted to the sea below. Shortly after Boomer had engaged his chute.

"One down," Panther reported "but he'll live, what do I do, Wolf?"

Wolf, who was engaged with Kilo at the time said "Destroy his parachute, I want Fox to hear him scream."

"Understood" Panther circled around and aimed his Plasma cannons at Boomer's chute.

"Damn" Fox turned to intercept, only to be nearly perforated by Wolf's vulcans.

" Take a seat Fox!"

"God…" Fox couldn't avert his glare from Panther's fighter.

Panther fired a burst into the parachute, searing it, and causing it to collapse. "Aw fuck me!" He yelled as he plummeted to the ocean.

"Boomer!" Koneko also watched the small dot that was Boomer, fall helplessly to the ocean, and his death. At the height which his fall started, the sea would be like concrete.

Boomers scream filled the com channels, as well as chatter between the other seven trainees, one pleaded "Somebody help him!" while others sweared, and said it was hopeless.

Then, after what seemed like an eternity, Boomer fell silent. He hit the water so hard that it instantly pulverized his body, but as if his death wasn't bad enough; Panther strafed across where he fell with 20mm fire. Even if Boomer survived the fall he would have been killed by the barrage, which tore his already broken body to shreds.

"That bastard!" Another trainee, 'Lancer', moved in to engage Panther "I'll kill you!"

"Heh, come, come to your demise…" Panther mocked him.

"One gone, Eleven to go." Wolf mused.

I'll end the chapter here, this one was quite long.

I hope I did well on this one.


	4. Chapter 3: High G Environment

Disclaimer: Starfox is copyright to Nintendo… not me… only Nicolae, and his brother Xavier belong to me, as well as other added characters.

A/N: If some of the wording seems like an alien language, well I should tell you that I use military terms, (Like DUH) if you have any words that you want to know the meaning just ask and I'll give you my definition. Also I use callsigns while in flight, it adds realism.

FYI:G-LOC is gravity induced loss of consciousness

Also you'll learn that the WOLFEN3 has a few dirty tricks, I'll tell you how they work. The fuselage isn't directly connected to the wings or the G-diffusers; instead it is connected to an axle that allows the cockpit and the nose pivot on a 360 degree horizontal axis in X wing form, and a 360 degree vertical axis in dual wing form (It looks like a fighter jet in this form, I'll draw a concept for it soon) the nose/cockpit can also pivot 90 degrees between two locking positions, which allow it to change between the two configurations in flight seamlessly. The G diffusers are over-under when in X-wing form, and side by side in dual wing form,.

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Chapter Three: High G Environment

"All units, this is Kilo, RTB as soon as possible, we'll hold them off." He said, trying to outmaneuver Wolf. _Damn, if this keeps up we'll both crash into the ocean._ The two were in what is called the death spiral.

"I tire of playing with them." Panther sighed, "Should we get serious?"

"Do what you wish." Wolf said as he pulled off from the spiral, dodging fire from Fox's blasters. During his turn Kilo had made a fatal error, he flew straight. Wolf took this opportunity to get a solid lock, his engines and wings still were pointing foreword, but his fuselage pivoted quickly.

"What the fuck?" A trainee, "Gunner", noticed wolf's fighter twist like it did. "How is that possible?"

"Wolfen one, Fox 3" An active guidance concussion missile dropped from a small bay on the fuselage, and took off toward Kilo.

"How did he do that?" Fox noticed Wolf's fighter's cockpit return to its original position.

"Releasing countermeasures!" Kilo's fighter lit up with flares, and small metal flechettes filled the air behind his fighter, he rolled hard right and banked. The G-forces put a relentless strain on his body. "C'mon… dammit!" but his maneuver was futile, those were the last words to come from his mouth as the missile detonated before it hit his fighter, shrapnel tore through the cockpit and G-diffusers, everything they hit was perforated.

"Captain!" Koneko tried to communicate, but to no avail.

"Eject Kilo!" Fox yelled through the comm, but his attempt to reach him was in vain. Captain Owens was already gone, his fighter finally exploded in midair a few seconds after the initial hit.

"Splash one… Panther, take care of that punk that's on your tail, we need to speed this up." Wolf began to chase Fox again. "Make it fast will ya?"

"Understood" Panther responded then he used his thumb to operate a small thumb stick on the control stick, His cockpit began to swing around like Wolf's did.

Lancer, who was giving chase, had a radar lock, and was about to fire when he noticed Panther's pivoting fuselage "What the?" he shook his head, "To hell with it, Lancer… Fox 2!" he said, right as the missile left the tube his cockpit was showered with 20mm cannon fire, the missile didn't make it two meters from him before it was shot down, and sent off course, but Lancer met a more morbid fate.

The screens in his cockpit shattered, and tracers flew past his face, _God help me._ He thought.

His face was quickly spattered with his blood, and he could no longer feel his legs, a 20mm sabot had split his body in half. He gurgled as more sabots tore through his hapless body. His, left arm, then his ear, one punched through his chest, it was happening so fast that he was literally being torn apart while he was still conscious. His pain finally ended when one of them smashed through his skull.

The cockpit was the only part hit by the cannon fire, a red mist spewed from the exit holes. The plane suddenly went into a rapid spin and flew toward the ocean below.

"That's another one…" panther returned his fighter back to its normal configuration and acquired a new target; Koneko.

Wolf on the other hand was still chasing Fox, they were shouting obscenities at each other, but the chatter couldn't be understood. In the midst of the chaos three of the fighters managed to escape, and high-tail it back to base, leaving Fox, Krystal, Falco, Koneko, Kid, and Gunner to deal with Panther, and Wolf.

Gunner had managed to tail Wolf without him knowing, _Die you son of a bitch._ He thought as he pulled the trigger for his plasma cannons. "What the?" his bolts struck an invisible shield. _Damn, electromagnetic shielding. _He then pulled the trigger for his vulcans.

Wolf felt a shock, and he noticed the fighter behind him and the tracers flying past. "Trying to use plasma on me eh… won't work." _Shit, But those bullets will. _ He did an Immelman maneuver, or loop as we call it, and came up behind Gunner. "Goodnight!" He fired a burst from his vulcans into Gunners starboard engine.

"Damn, Fox I'm hit, get him off me!" Gunner pulled up, but his fighter was underpowered, he wasn't as maneuverable as usual.

"Coming around" Fox did a split-S u-turn, but noticed that someone was already moving in to intercept Wolf.

"Eat this." Kid fired a plasma charge, he knew that it wouldn't destroy Wolf's fighter but it would throw him far off course.

Wolf began firing his plasma and cannons at gunner, but before he got a hit, his fighter violently jolted to the right, it his so hard that his head struck the safety glass canopy. "Fuck!" He shook the pain off, and looked to see who his attacker was.

"You're clear Gunner, Hurry up and RTB." Kid said to his wingmate.

"Gotcha" Gunner did a rather wide turn and headed back to base, Panther was too busy chasing Koneko, and Wolf was too dazed to give chase.

"Somebody help!" Koneko was jinking and banking hard, trying to keep Panther off her tail.

"Tch, stop moving…" Panther fired a burst, hoping to scare her into a high G turn, she fell for it.

Koneko has pulled back on the stick as hard as she could, sending her and panther into a tight death spiral. "I'm… under fire…" she felt the G suit squeeze her and she read the gravity indicator, 11 Gs, she felt numb, she was outmaneuvering Panther by a great degree, but she was succumbing to the G-forces. "Help…"

"Koneko! Stop!" Falco watched as her fighter began to wobble, "I've got him!" He fired a burst of plasma at Panther, and caused him to break off his attack.

"Koneko, are you ok?" Kid asked, no answer. "Shit!"

Koneko's eyes had rolled back, and her hand lost grip on the stick, her fighter began to dive for the ocean.

"What a fool!" Panther watched as her fighter flew toward the ocean, "Heh, that ones dead…"

"Koneko! Pull up!" Kid was trying to rouse her.

"p..l u…. pull…… dammit…" Koneko heard as she slowly came to, a warmth of sorts was on her face, she was dazed and almost fully conscious when her radio boomed "Pull up NOW!", and she realized how close she was to the ocean, 200 feet. "Crap!" She pulled on the stick, "C'mon!"

Her fighter violently jerked down, and a few of the screens on her cockpit broke. She shook her head and looked around, white mist was all she could see on the screens, and she heard what sounded like raindrops on the canopy.

"Kamille, Blow the canopy, you're sinking!" Kid yelled.

As soon as she heard it she saw the azure water show up on one of the left screens, her fighter was listing to port, she had no time to think, because the water was getting higher on the screens. She managed to unbuckle herself and the hose for the G-suit and she had her hand on the canopy release. _Here goes._ She pulled the lever and the canopy blew off, water began to rush into the open cockpit, she stood up as the water overtook her, the fighter sank fast but she stayed aloft in the water. "I'll be ok, just keep them away from me."

"Got it, but don't use a life preserver, they'll see you." Kid returned to the fray.

"Gotcha you bastard" Falco said as he fired at Panther, but he noticed the plasma deflect off. "Damn…"

Panther taunted him, "Useless…" he then tried the trick on Falco that he did to Lancer.

"Hell no." Falco had seen this trick so he cut chase. "That was close…" a warning beep then rang in his ears. "What?"

"Goodnight Falco…" Wolf fired two missiles and a volley of plasma, and cannon busts at him.

"Shit…" He banked as the missiles got close. They missed and flew past by a few feet, but he ran straight into Wolf's barrage. The plasma bolts deflected off of his shield but the sabots tore though the starboard plasma cannon, wing, and the fighters nose. _Dammit, I was too careless._ He said as a second barrage ripped through his G-diffuser, and took off his port wing. All of his control surfaces were useless, and his engine was out of commission, his Arwing was a dead stick. "Fox, I want you to do me a favor…" he said sadly as his Arwing began to freefall to the sea. "Tell Katt that I'll always be with her…"

"Falco?" Krytsal, looked at the smoke trail from his fighter.

"damn…… anything else?" Fox couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"Yeah…" Falco looked at the altimeter, it read 900 feet; then he closed his eyes and yelled, "Send that son of a bitch to hell for me!" His Arwing crashed into the water at terminal velocity, pieces of the Arwing flew far from the splash, and when it subsided, the wreckage sunk to the bottom of the ocean.

"Falco!" Krystal screamed, but no answer, she the realized something, something was just above her.

"Krystal! Watch it!" Fox looked at a strange sight, Wolf's fighter was in a different configuration, and he was flying upside down speed matched with Krystal. Looking down at her from his cockpit, which was only a few feet from hers.

Krystal looked up; and was startled at the sight of a one eyed wolf, who waved at her.

"So your name is Krystal?" he said through the radio. _That's all I needed to know._

"Leave her alone!" Fox was screaming at him.

"Heh… fine then." He broke off, and engaged Fox again. "Panther, take care of the girl."

"With pleasure…" He started to chase Krystal, who began evasive maneuvers.

"Leave me alone!" she yelled at him.

"Such a beautiful voice" he laughed, "Too bad I'll have to silence it." His warning system caught his attention; a missile was headed for him. "But first, I'll take care of you!" He evaded a missile, and cannon fire fragged one of his wings. "Damn you!"

"Come and get me!" Kid flew passed him, and Panther gave chase.

"You're dead you little punk!" Panther fired his cannons at Kid's Super Wyvern, but he missed every time. _Damn he's good._

_Let's see…_ He returned to level flight, _I know he'll fall for it._ He thought.

"Heh, dumb kid…" Panther closed in for the kill "Begone!"

"See ya" Kid had turned his engines to VTOL mode, and yawed around, firing his vulcans directly into Panther's WOLFEN3, he reversed direction so he could pummel his enemy as he flew by.

"What in seven hells!?" Panther yelled as his fighter was hit relentlessly by 20mm sabots, his topside G-diffuser core ruptured, and the fighter's cockpit was smashed by the ensuing explosion, killing him, and sending the fighter into a violent roll. It careened a few hundred meters before the second G-diffuser detonated and ripped the rest of the fighter to pieces.

"Oh yeah!" Kid yelled into the radio "Scrath one bandit!"

"Yes!" Kamille cheered as she watched the burning wreckage of Panther's fighter fall.

Wolf stared at the falling wreckage, then at the hovering Super Wyvern _You… Damn you!_

"Heh… Looks like you lost your wingman…" Fox taunted Wolf.

Wolf didn't answer, he instead broke chase and flew straight for Kid. "You made your last mistake you little punk!" he fumed with rage.

"Come and get me!" Kid said as he set his engines back to flight and took off, Wolf close behind.

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I'll cut the chapter here… I've been typing nonstop for a few hours…

A/N: I really like how it came out, but… the fact that Falco died… well I hope people will still read.

FYI: Sabot is pronounced **Say**-bō


	5. Chapter 4: Bittersweet Victory

Disclaimer: Starfox is copyright to Nintendo… not me… only Nicolae, and his brother Xavier belong to me, as well as other added characters.

A/N: I've been thinking, whether I should give this story a darker approach, I decided to do so. Nicolae, will be back in the story soon…

FYI: Plasma is affected by the shields but bullets are not, this is due to true physics, the electromagnetic spectrum affects matter but only to a certain degree, an EM shield will stop even the most powerful plasma streams but not a 22 caliber bullet. Just to stop a bullet, the shield would probably consume astronomical amounts of energy, the amount from a fusion reactor that has an output of 2 energy magnitude. (that is the output of two suns in one nanosecond)

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Chapter Four: Contracts

"Come on!" Kid taunted Wolf as they spiraled upward, plasma bolts tore through the air as Wolf fired out of rage. "As skilled as you are, and you can't even touch me!" He leveled off upside down as his altimeter read 30,000 feet and went into a dive.

"Stop moving so I can shoot you!" Wolf was on edge, he followed Kid's maneuver.

"Damn, I've never seen anyone fly like that…" Fox watched their graceful dance of death, "How is it possible for a trainee to be that good?"

"Go, baby go…" Kamille watched the spiraling contrails, hoping that Kid would be okay.

"He…" Krystal spoke rather strangely, "He's…"

"What Krystal?" Fox asked.

"No nevermind… It had to do with one of my premonitions." She said, and drew her stare back at the swirling contrails. "But he's like you… Peppy told me that when you were still a young prodigy, you saved the entire system."

"Gotcha!" Wolf had seen Kid make a very minute error, in an attempt to keep from blacking out he turned less sharp than usual, Wolf on the other hand wasn't afraid to succumb as long as he got a few shots into Kid's Wyvern. He took the opportunity and fired a burst of his Vulcan cannons. He let go of the stick before he was in danger of blackout, knowing that he had at least put a few holes in Kid's fighter.

The burst left a line of holes in the port side engine casing, and the G-diffuser's lens flare faded as the engine began to fail.

Kid had heard what sounded like rocks hit his fighter, but then he felt his fighter lurch to port. "What?" He looked at the screen that shows fighter integrity, the left engine was blinking red, and a voice warning said that his port side G-diffuser is malfunctioning. "Son of a bitch… I'm gonna have to end this fast." He spotted Wolf's fighter.

"Alright" Wolf let thef feeling return to his face "Time to finish this." He looked out of his canopy, and smiled as he saw the smoke trail from Kid's fighter. "This is going to be easy."

"Shit… Kid's been hit, he's trailing smoke." Fox watched, knowing that even if he tried to fight, his blasters would be useless.

Kamille stopped cheering, she still had a radio feed. "Damn it…"

Wolf had positioned his fighter behind Kid, and got a missile lock. "Goodbye."

"You wish, releasing chaff and flare!" He pulled up hard, and his fighter left a trail of metal fragments, and flares.

"You little fuck!" Wolf looked at his missile guidance system; his screen read thousands of targets. "To hell with this" He switched it off. _Just die already! _He let loose with his vulcans in a relentless stream of automatic fire. "Die!" he yelled but he noticed his target do something different.

"Heh…" Kid reached and hit two switches two turn off his engines, and pulled as back on the stick so hard that it wanted to break. "See you in hell…"

"What!?" Wolf flew right past Kid as he looped, and took position behind him.

Kid hit the two switches again, and his starboard engine roared to life, and though the other wanted to sputter, when he increased the throttle even it shot to life. "Adios…" He pulled the trigger for his vulcans and riddled one of wolf's G-diffusers and wings. He had almost reached the core or the engine when the guns clicked empty "Tch, ammo." He pulled of.

"Son of a bitch…" Wolf turned tail and ran, his port wing's aleron frozen. "Can't risk it…" He headed off in the direction from which he came.

"Should we give chase?" Krystal asked Fox.

"No, we have someone to pick up…" Fox flew down toward Kamille, who had popped an orange smoke flare, "You two head back to base; I'll meet you shortly." He positioned his Arwing just above the water and opened the canopy.

"Understood sir" Kid got back into formation with Krystal, "See you back home."

_Good job…_Kamille thought, she tossed the flare as she swam toward Fox's Arwing, "Are you sure you have enough room Sir?"

"Yeah, it'll be fine. Get in Koneko." He motioned for her to get in.

She climbed up the small ladder, and got in the cockpit. "I hope I'm not crowding you."

"N-not a problem, I just hope Krystal doesn't mind." Fox felt embarrassed, the last time a girl was in his cockpit; it was Krystal. "Ah she won't care…"

"You sure Sir?" She wasn't embarrassed at all. "Lets just get back to base, I'm soaked."

As Fox was landing he noticed a small pink fighter on the tarmac _Damn, she had to come already…_ When he touched down he opened the canopy.

"Thanks for the lift." Kamille got out of the cockpit and looked around. "Hope no one minds." She unzipped her flight suit to let her fur air out.

What are you doing?" Fox looked at her funny, "Ahh... nevermind." He walked toward the pink fighter, knowing who was waiting there.

"Yeah baby! Take it off!" Gunner picked on Kamille as he walked by. Then a helmet struck him in the head, he laughed even though it hurt. "Glad you made it!"

"Gunner, You're such a perv!" She yelled jokingly but then she thought, _Glad you made it back too…_she walked over to where the rest of her squadron was hanging out on the tarmac.

"So Kid, I heard that you shot one of them down! Dude, how did you do that?" A hyena wearing a pair of sunglasses asked him, then he glanced over to Kamille. _Hot damn…_

"Hey Koneko!" A few of the pilots greeted her, a few whistled.

"C'mon guys, stop staring." She ran her paw through her purple hair and sighed, she didn't look happy.

"What's wrong?" one of the other Trainees from a different squad asked. Gunner had an idea that something terrible happened, but Xavier knew something was wrong.

"So where's that Lombardi guy?" Gunner asked. "I didn't see him land…"

Xavier's face twisted painfully, but he said nothing. Kamille closed her eyes and shook her head.

"Forget I asked then…" Gunner walked away, he felt sorry that he even brought it up.

"Fox!" Katt ran up to greet him, she hugged him tightly. She broke the embrace "How you been?" she took her helmet off.

"Fine…" Fox mumbled, he didn't want to tell her about Falco, but he had to.

"Is something wrong?" Katt asked.

Fox prepared to catch her if she fainted. "About Falco… he's"

"Who's that pink cat over there?" One of Xavier's squadmates, Jack "Phalanx" Dingo, asked.

"I'm not sure." Xavier noticed Katt drop her helmet and fall to her knees.

"Katt Monroe… she's Falco's girlfriend…" Krystal stood by them. "We should go somewhere else; it's not polite to stare." Krystal walked off, _I need fresh air… maybe I should go to the beach and think things over._

"Right." Koneko said, though everyone else dispersed she walked toward them.

"Who…" Katt said darkly. "Who took him away from me?" She had tears running down her face, but she was enraged.

"Wolf did…" Fox answered, not able to say anything else.

"He died after he tried to save me… I'm sorry." Kamille stood a few feet from Katt and Fox.

Katt didn't even look in her direction. "Why did he even try to save you? He'd still be here if it wasn't for you." She mumbled. Fox heard it but Kamille didn't.

_Please don't blame her… it's not her fault._ Fox wanted to say, but something stopped him.

"Did you say something?" Kamille asked.

"If it wasn't for you Falco would still be here!" Katt screamed at her. "Why couldn't you die in his place!?"

"…" Kamille turned away, "I'm sorry…But I can't change the past."

Katt pulled a blaster from her holster and aimed at Kamille, but her hands were shaking violently, she fumbled the blaster before Fox could get to her. "Why?"

"Katt… its not her fault, if you blame anyone, blame Wolf."

"Shut up… just shut up… I want to be alone…"

Fox walked a few steps, turned and said "He'll always be with you, he wanted you to know that." Fox then left her alone.

After Fox left, Katt began to eye the blaster… but she shook her head. _First I'll kill Wolf... Then I'll end it._ She picked up her blaster, holstered it, and walked toward the compound.

Wolf had reached his landing field, a small air base near some farmland. He didn't ask for clearance, there was no tower; he just came in and landed on his own. Wolf was on his way to the hangar when one of his ground crew, a husky named Leonard, flagged him to stop. He opened the canopy and was about to talk, but was cut off.

"Hey Wolf! What the fuck happened to your fighter? And where's Panther?" The teenage husky asked him.

Wolf got out of the cockpit. "Dogfight… and we lost."

"Okay, then what about Panther?" Leonard asked.

"He's gone… shot out of the sky by some prodigy." Wolf punched the hull of his fighter. "Little bitch almost got me too." He looked at the husky, who was hysterical.

"Ah SHIT! My brother's going to be pissed!" He yelled as he stomped off toward the hangar.

_This just isn't my day…_Wolf followed him.

The two walked into the hangar, and went up to another husky, who was working on another WOLFEN3. "Hey … Wolf's got something to say."

The husky stopped working on the fighter, grabbed a rag and wiped his hands. "Yeah… what's up?" He looked around "Where's Panther?"

"Panther's dead, and my fighter's been shot to hell…" Wolf told the husky, Michael.

Mike said nothing as he walked up to wolf, he threw his rag on the ground and got into his face. "You'd better be joking."

"I'm not…" Wolf said adamantly.

"Tch…" Michael turned around, balled up his paw into a fist, then turned around and punched Wolf in the jaw. The impact sent him to the ground, and this was no surprise, Mike was on hell of a well built husky. "How could you be so goddamn stupid?" He fumed, "What am I gonna tell Panther's little brother?"

Wolf sat up, and popped his jaw back. "I don't know, that's up to you." He stood up. "Can you fix my fighter?"

"What, so you can break it again?" Mike flared "Fuck you…" he started to walk away.

Wolf drew his blaster "Either you fix my goddamn fighter or you die." He said calmly.

Mike turned around, and sighed "First of all, it's my fighter, I built the damn thing… second of all, you don't have what it takes to shoot me… now I'm all you got." He returned to work on his WOLFEN3.

_He's got a point…_ Wolf holstered his blaster, and walked away, back to 'his' fighter so he could taxi it to the hangar.

"Shit, Mike… did you have to hit him like that?" Leonard asked Michael.

"Leo, how many times did I tell you to stop cussing? Dad wouldn't take well to that if he was still here." He looked at his little brother.

"Tch… whatever." Leo walked away.

_Kids these days…_ Mike thought as he riveted a sheet of aluminum onto the wing's frame.

Wolf stopped and leaned on the fighter, took out a cell phone and dialed a number, he waited as the phone rang.

Nicolae was sitting on a bench near the beach, watching families and their children. One certain vixen caught his eye, _Blue fur, that's something unique…_ He eyed her, certain thoughts ran through his head, lustful thoughts. "What the hell is wrong with me?" he shook his head, then his phone rang. "Hmm?" He grabbed the phone, and answered, "Hello…"

"How ya been, Nick, it's me Wolf."

"Oh, Wolf O'Donnell, it's been a while." Nicolae still eyed Krystal, _Damn…_

"Hmph… I'm not calling to spark a conversation… I have a job for you."

"Oh, I see." He took his eyes off of Krystal and listened intently. "Who?"

"She's a vixen by the name of Krystal…"

"Okay, can you describe this vixen…" He took out a notepad, and clicked a pen so he could jot it down.

"She's rather easy to identify, I've never seen a girl like her."

_Wait, someone like no other. No can't be._ "What's so different about her?"

"She has blue fur"

"Shit!" He said aloud

"Hmm? What's up?"

"Well I'm looking straight at her, really man do I have to?"

"Oh… so a heartless killer suddenly gets love-struck, you're pathetic. Here I was thinking you were the best." Wolf taunted. "I'll just get another…"

"Fine it's a deal, but why do you want her dead?"

"I want to piss off someone, a certain Fox McCloud."

"I could just kill…"

"No! McCloud is mine!" Wolf spat "Make him suffer!" wolf hung up.

"Damn… this just isn't my style." He got up and walked to Krystal, who was meditating.

Krystal had delved deep into her mind, and had another premonition. She saw a grey fox, walking toward her, with an arrogant smile on his face. She looked at him hard, but couldn't get any facial features. She saw him pull a weapon, not a blaster, but something else, watched him pull the trigger. A flash erupted from the muzzle, but little to no sound. _What? What is going on?_ She asked herself, then she turned around, she saw Fox, he had been mortally wounded, and fell to his knees.

"Excuse me" Nicolae put his hand on her shoulder, startling her from her premonition.

"Ah!" She jumped a bit, "Oh… you scared… me." She looked at the grey vulpine who stood next to her, he had extended a hand.

"The names Nicolae, what's yours?" He asked.

"Krystal…" She grabbed his hand.

"Such a beautiful name for such a beautiful vixen, nice to meet you" He said.

A/N Sorry if I left this at a cliffhanger. But this chapter was really long.

Please give me feedback on what you think… it would be well appreciated.


	6. Chapter 5: Something to hide

Disclaimer: Starfox is copyright to Nintendo… not me… only Nicolae, Xavier, Kamille, Michael, etc. belong to me.

A/N: Everyone has secrets…

FYI: Introduction of a Special Forces unit later in this chapter. Prominence, Lambda unit

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Chapter Five: Something to hide

Krystal walked alongside Nicolae, she felt strange in his presence, almost warm.

"So, are you from around here?" Nicolae asked, trying to start a conversation.

"No, I'm from a planet called Cerina, but I'd rather not talk about it." Her voice trailed, but Nick still heard her.

"I see…" He said, looking her over. _Very Nice. _He thought as more lustful thoughts ran through his mind, then he slapped himself, and brought himself back to reality. "Well I'm not from here either, but I'm from this planet." He said "But my parents were murdered, I have a brother as well, but I have not seen him since." He held a serious look on his face.

"What's his name?"

"Dunno, I fear he may be dead, he was shot in the chest, and left arm multiple times at close range with a blaster."

"How do you know that?" She asked him.

He felt a chill as he said "I saw it happen."

Krystal stopped walking "That's… horrible…" She looked over to him and asked "How do you cope with that?"

"I try to forget, but it's no use." He answered, shaking his head. "Come on, it's getting late."

"Well, I guess I'll be heading back to base." She started to walk off when Nicolae grabbed her hand.

"You could stay at my place, it's not too far from here, if I remember, the base is a good hour's walk." He smiled. "Besides, it's been a while since I had any company."

"Spending a night sounds a little farfetched right now." She said with a blush.

"Not if you count how wild it gets at night" He was serious again

Krystal's ears perked "What do you mean wild?"

"Well, I don't carry this around for nothing." He flashed a holster, "The area here can be dangerous, Raves, drugs… it's a mess." He began walking, he coaxed her to come.

"Oh" she began walking alongside him.

"Just don't worry, I won't do anything…" He gave her a cute look as they walked. _This is gonna be the easiest job in my life._

Krystal gave him a funny look, and forced a thought into his head. _Job?_

Nicolae felt cold. _What's going on?_ He looked at Krystal who winked.

_I know what you thought when you looked at me earlier, You sure you won't try anything?_ She looked at him seriously.

"You're a telepath?" Nicolae blushed under his fur from embarrassment.

"Yes of course." She said. "Does it bother you?"

"No, uh… not at all." He said as he opened the door, "Ladies first…"

"Thank you…" She walked passed, and sat on the couch. She smiled at him meekly. "Something wrong?"

Nick felt like ice, "Maybe I bit off more than I can chew."

"Why did you say that?"

"Cuz I can't think it." He twitched when she forced another thought into his head. _Don't get any ideas._

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Xavier stood in his room. _Damn…_ He ran his paw up his left arm, and felt something. "hrnn…" he felt it, a feline paw.

"Something bothering you." A soft voice asked.

"It's nothing Kamille." He lied

"Don't lie to me… I've had my hand on you for at least five minutes, and you didn't notice me." She said softly, almost sadly. "You can tell me, Tony."

Xavier didn't want to speak, his thoughts roamed around his brother. _I'll get you for this._

Kamille pressed against his arm, "You're cold."

"Kamille stop." He couldn't feel her hands pressing on his arm, so he clenched his fingers.

Kamille jumped at the movement under his skin. "All these years that I've known you, why didn't you tell me?" she asked.

"I was afraid."

"Afraid of what?" her paws ran across his chest, and she tried to listen to his heartbeat, she heard it, but also beeps and clicks. "No matter what, I still love you."

Xavier's heart skipped. He felt warm, except for his chest and arm. "Thanks… Kamille"

"Xavier?"

"Yes?"

"Who did this to you?" she hugged him tightly.

Xavier sighed, "My… brother…. I don't know his name, but I remember his face, he looked scared." He thought deeply. "He also kept cursing a person named Leon."

---Ten years ago

_I remember it like it was yesterday, I was walking about the house when my brother walked through the front door._ _My mother ran to him, glad that he was home after a year._

"Nicolae… where have you been?" His mother embraced him; she had tears running down her face.

"I've been around…" the young teenager said coldly. He didn't even hug her back.

His father had walked in, carrying a glass of wine, he took one look at Nicolae and dropped it, and it smashed on the floor as he ran to his son.

"Mom, Dad… I'm sorry." He threw her off and pulled his blaster, and aimed it straight at his fathers head. "Goodbye." He pulled the trigger, the bolt tore through his father's skull, he took two steps before he fell to the floor, his wound cauterized so there was no blood.

"Dad?" Xavier watched in horror as his mother was shot, point blank, in the forehead, this one wasn't so clean, burnt blood sprayed on Nicolae's jacket. "Mom!"

Nicolae gave Xavier a look of despair as he looked up at him, "Brother… Please…"

"You… You killed them you bastard!" He felt a searing pain in his left arm, which brought him to his knees, screaming.

"Damn you…" Nicolae said as he walked up the stairs "Leon…"

"Mom… Dad…" Xavier writhed on the ground in pain, crying and holding his wounded arm. He felt a tear fall on him, and he looked up. "B-Brother?"

"Yes…" he raised his blaster and aimed it at Xavier's face. "Don't worry kid, it won't hurt anymore."

"Please don't"

"I'm sorry" he squeezed the trigger

"No!" Xavier threw his wounded arm in the way, he winced in pain as the bolt burned into his arm.

"Brother… don't shield yourself. It'll only hurt more." He kicked Xavier, but he didn't budge.

"Stop!"

"You give me no choice…" He pulled the trigger in rapid succession, releasing ten, fifteen blasts into Xavier's arm, the smell of torched flesh and the sound of agony filled the room. When he stopped Xavier was no longer crying, but enraged. Nicolae was bawling; he didn't want this. "Why do you delay your inevitable…"

"Brother… no… you aren't my brother…" Adrenaline coursed through his body, and he stood, his only useable paw clenched around Nicolae's neck. "I'll kill you!"

"Damn…" He raised his blaster and fired a shot into Xavier's chest, the shot ripped through his lung, but he didn't let loose his grip. Another shot, this one in the left clavicle, cutting through the connective tissue, and causing Xavier's arm to be severed but he only gripped tighter claws dug into his neck. Nick's hand was now shaking as he gasped for air, another, another, he kept firing as his vision began to fade, one of the blasts ripped though his brother's heart. A sigh of relief escaped as Xavier's grip loosened. "Brother… I'm so sorry"

Xavier fell to the floor "F….urrgk" He gurgled, his left lung had collapsed and blood filled the cavity

"What?" Sirens blared in the distance, "Damn… I took too long." he took a step when something stopped him.

Xavier grabbed Nicolae's ankle, and said darkly "F-Fuck you…" He lost consciousness soon after.

---present day

"I can't remember much after that." He told her "When I next awoke it was around three years after that incident, I found that my arm, my lung, half of my ribcage, every muscle in that general area, all replaced."

"You know… just because your heart isn't flesh. It doesn't mean that you can't love." She smiled "Your blood still runs red, you're still alive."

"Come on… now you're embarrassing me." He felt like a kid again. And laughed as she tickled his sides.

"You know, All this time that you spoke to me. You haven't looked at me."

"Really?" he looked at her face. "Happy now?"

"No…" She pulled closer. "Turn around."

"Fine…" He closed his eyes and turned toward her, "This had better not be some kinda… Whoa!" His eyes widened as he stared over her body. "Hold on a second, I don't think the base commander would approve…"

"Lighten up…" She hugged him, his fur seemed to turn pink from the severe blushing.

"Oh man… here? Now!?" He tried to back up, but in vain. "Please, can you just put that thought on hold?"

"No." She said, inching closer.

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In the conference room, GEN Pepper was preparing to brief the Lambda unit of the Marine's recon assault force Prominence.

"Seats." He said; Lambda unit took their seats "I've called this meeting at such a late time to brief you all on a retaliatory assignment. As you all know, our Navy's AWACS detected the lone aircraft after the aerial engagement, en route to this location." He brought up a tacmap, to show where Wolf had landed. "The location is in the middle of North Veldtia." His voice trailed as he looked over to the Grand Admiral whom had just walked in. "Usually I would be the one giving orders, but it seems right that I give command to Admiral Richard Clarke, this is his jurisdiction anyway."

"Thank you Chairman." He dismissed Pepper, and turned his attention to Lambda unit. "Good evening, I see that the General had begun the brief, but I guess I'll finish it."

He put his attention to the tacmap. "This area, has just been declared a no-fly zone by the country of Veldtia, this is the reason that you have been called upon. Originally we were planning on sending a tactical fighter squadron to pummel the facility into submission, but not long after the attacker had landed, the country had established it's current no fly zone. The country's leader, Premier Johannes Khrushchev, had also said that any attempt to attack this facility would be an act of war; apparently this facility is their manufacturing center for their prime corporation, Fenrir Arms. To counter this, you will be inserted via VTOL dropship, just out of range of the CWIS system that protects the facility, keep in mind that you are not to damage any hardware, but you have the green light to use deadly force on any personnel at the facility. Your main objective is the capture or elimination of this wolf." The screen showed a dossier of Wolf O'Donnel "He's was the leader of the disbanded Star Wolf, but it seems that he's now part of the Veldtian military. Also another target is his fighter, the WOLFEN Mk III. Once you have completed your objectives, leave the area and prepare for extraction at the original insertion point, the VTOL will be on its way as soon as you give the signal." He turned around to look at the unit. "Also, there's one more thing, you all do not exist. If you are captured, do not say anything. If you do, we will deny all responsibility, so if you SNAFU this it won't be our fuck up, It'll fall on you." He turned the tacmap off. "Gear up and be ready to leave within the hour, Dismissed"

The six soldiers stood, rendered a salute which the Admiral returned, about faced and left the conference room.

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"Hey, has anyone seen Krystal?" Fox walked into the mess hall. All of the pilots, and soldiers there either shrugged, or shook their heads. "Damn… where did she go?"

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A/N Clarke called Pepper chairman because usually the top general is also the Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, according to United States regulations of course.


	7. Chapter 6: The head of the Hydra

Disclaimer: Starfox is copyright to Nintendo… not me… only Nicolae, Xavier, Kamille, Michael, etc. belong to me.

A/N: This chapter is mostly about Lambda unit's assault on Michael's facility.

FYI: The solid ammunition weapons are my original creations, they use operating actions of real guns, and I love to make up weapons. Bullpup weapons are like the FAMAS (AKA The Metal Gear gun) where the breach and magazine are behind the trigger housing and grip, this allows for a much more compact weapon with a high level of accuracy. Roller lock action weapons are like the MP-5, and are damn accurate. They operate by use of a gas blowback piston like most automatic weapons, but the charging handle is very unique, it operates much like a bolt action rifle, except the charging handle is in front of the breach on the foregrip or forward handguard, near the end of the barrel. It is cocked, or should I say charged, much like a left handed bolt action weapon, but can fire automatic because of the gas piston inside the roller action which locks in place, hence the name, roller lock. This makes the roller lock not only expensive, but unparalleled in accuracy as well.

I also have drawings of my weapons at / user / tonywolf (No spaces)

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Chapter Six: The head of the Hydra

The Veldtian Premier, a cobra named Johannes Khrushchev, sat at his office desk, looking over reports from numerous benefactors, then one caught his eye. "So, Kaiser Damarus, it's been a long time comrade."

"That it has" A dark, almost foreboding voice came from behind him and startled the Premier. He turned around to see a cloaked figure, his pale fur and black eyes gave the already ominous creature a demon-like demeanor "Old friend, are you afraid?"

"Of course not, I already know how you got here, but why are you here?"

"Something troubles me, my pawn; Leon is no longer with us." His voice showed no remorse.

"Leon Powalski? Hmmm… you know how he was killed?" Khrushchev stood, and took a few steps toward Damarus. "Or, has your 'divine' power left you." Khrushchev hissed.

"Since the destruction of Cerina, yes, my power has been fading. I could only catch a glimpse of the killer, a grey furred vulpine." He rubbed his chin in thought.

"You should step aside comrade, it seems that your power just isn't enough anymore. Though it did help me to overturn the government of Veldtia in my favor." He laughed "I personally think that you should resign as Kaiser, Guitrez."

Damarus didn't hesitate to lift the Premier off his feet telekinetically, and begin to choke him. "I will not resign, and I can very easily strip you of your selfish existence."

"Fine, you win…" Khrushchev coughed "Now put me down."

"Very well" He dropped his hand, and the Premier fell to the floor.

"Now… why are you here?" The cobra said as he stood back up and adjusted his ascot.

"I've come to tell you that the Cornerian military has prepared an assault on the Fenrir Arms WOLFEN industrial unit… that's all you need to know." He took his bow, and left him.

The Premier walked back to his desk, and pondered over what Damarus had told him. "Hmph, I don't really think that Pepper would go that far, but, as they say, assumption is the mother of all fuck ups." He said as he activated his videophone, and dialed a channel to Michael.

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Michael sat behind his work station, tinkering with a small reactor coolant regulator when the holoscreen flashed to life in front of him. "You need something?"

"Michael Asher, sorry for calling at such a late time, but it just so happens that your facility has been targeted… just tell your personnel to be ready for a strike very soon… it's in your hands for now comrade." The screen turned off.

Michael quickly stood and ran into the center of the hangar "Attention! Everyone get to the armory, and take defensive positions, Leo! Get that damn CWIS online! If they try to come in from the air, wipe them out!" he looked to a fellow worker who threw a FBR-10 7.62mm Battle Rifle. "Hey, someone get Wolf, where the hell is he!?"

"Over here" Wolf waved his paw "I spotted a dropship just outside of the CWIS's range, what the hell is going on?"

"Shit… Wolf, get to your battle station, I'm hitting the lights as soon as you're in position." He signaled one of his workers to toss Wolf a Suppressed FMP-8SD PDW 5.7mm submachine gun.

"Yeah sure, whatever." He said as he ran upstairs to his position, a suspended walkway 30 feet above the concrete floor, his silent weapon and high position gave him a sheer advantage against any who walked into the facility. "I'm here, hit 'em." He said into a headset radio.

"Got it." He hit the lights, and the hangar was suddenly as black as onyx.

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"Admiral Clarke, this is Lambda unit, we've landed on the perimeter. Permission to move on with the plan?" The marines had just finished taking out the last of the crates, and the dropship had taken off.

"Permission granted, Master Gunnery Sergeant Jennifer"

"I respectfully ask to be called Gunny, Sarge, or Raymond sir" she said.

"Oh, sorry… well, you have a green light. Radio silence until the operation has been deemed successful, Clarke out." The radio cut off.

"Well Sarge, guess this is it, failure isn't an option." Said Lance Corporal Griff Herring, the only non-lupine in the outfit, he was a mixture of feline and avian, his face was that of a cat, but the rest of his features were feathered, hence his name Griff. "What the?" He noticed something, a crate had shaken. "Mam, Should I go check that out?"

"Go ahead." She activated her nightvision. "But make it quick."

The corporal was about to grab the box when the top flew open, slammed him in the face. "Ow damn!"

"Who are you!?" The soldiers pointed their firearms at the feline who had smuggled herself in a crate, she was decked in the same armor as they were, but no nightvision, she didn't need it.

"Katt Monroe… now if you please" She motioned them to put away their weapons.

"Somebody call that VTOL back, get her out of here." They stood aiming their weapons on her, which were safed.

"Hey… I know why you are here." Katt scoffed

The comms officer shook his head. "Sorry, his radio is off until 0100."

"Shit…"

"Hey I can shoot a gun, so shut up..." She smirked "Besides, you guys haven't taken the safeties off."

"Well mam, we just got off the dropship. Do you expect us to fly with unsafed weapons? That's how accidents happen." Said one of the marines, who dropped the muzzle on his firearm. "Can someone detain this girl?"

Sarge was about to grab Katt from behind when she turned to face her.

"Don't even think it" She pulled her blaster and pointed it Raymond. "This is personal. Wolf… is… mine!" She said in the Sergeant's face, and then she put her blaster pistol up.

"Just what I was afraid of... By the way, don't even think about using that, it's far too loud." She turned around and walked toward the Fenrir bulding. "Well you coming or not? The facility isn't far from our location." Lambda's squad leader shook her head as they walked toward the facility. _Hope she doesn't mess this up._

The assault group, along with Katt, traversed across the farmland. Scanning the area; taking overwatch positions as the other members moved forward. They moved so stealthily that a bystander wouldn't even know they were there. In a matter of minutes they were moving alongside the building, looking for patrols on the runway, and checking out the vehicles for personnel.

Katt had separated from the group when they reached the location, conducting a search of her own. She cared less if someone shot her, unless, that is if she had a clear shot at Wolf.

"Where in the hell are you?" she whispered to herself as she searched small outposts, she found one guard, sleeping at his post. _Hell, why not?_ She raised her weapon, a roller lock action bullpup 9x39mm covert battle rifle CBR-14SD, she clicked the fire selector two times, one to unsafe the weapon, and twice to set it for three round burst, then she grabbed the charging handle, lifted it up, pulled it back, took a look at the bullet in the chamber then slowly pushed it forward and locked it back in place. "Heh… sweet dreams." She squeezed the trigger, three almost inaudible pips and clicks came from the rifle, and three smoke puffs spewed from the muzzle and breach, and the sound of brass hitting concrete interrupted the ghostly silence.

Even at this close of range, the three subsonic rounds had easily punched through the guard's flak vest, and into his chest, the three bullets lodged in his right lung. He shuddered, opened his eyes, and struggled for breath, but before he could do anything more he was silenced by a strike to the temple by the stock of the weapon, it only knocked him out, but he soon drowned in his own blood.

"Alright, this is the hangar… all weapons off safe, set to full auto or burst." The Sarge had already charged her covert battle rifle, so she just switched the selector to three round burst fire. After everyone was ready she ordered them to move in behind her.

The hangar was dark, and silent. Nothing registered on their nightvision, so they fanned out, looking around corners, moving strategically between the equipment.

"Gunny, I don't see anything… are you sure we have the right place?" he radioed Raymond, who was making her way up the stairs to the second level catwalks, unaware that she had just passed over one of the base staff who took position under the stairs.

"Come on… just a little closer." Michael had his paw on the circuit breaker for the lights. Sergeant Raymond walked passed when he suddenly shouted "Flare!" and hit the breakers.

All of the personnel had covered their eyes, as not to be blinded when the lights came on, but the light amplification on the nightvision goggles worn by the marines turned the already intense light into a blinding flare of over ten thousand candela, they dropped their weapons and hit the deck, and tried frantically to throw off their nighvision. "Hold your fire!" Michael yelled over the marines, who were howling in pain.

Katt's ears perked up as she looked at the now illuminated hangar. "Damn, looks like they knew we were coming." She ran up to the main gateway. _So Wolf… Where are you?_ She trained her rifle, and looked through the integral ACOG 4x scope, panning around, looking for her quarry.

Laughs enveloped the massive room as the facility workers taunted the writhing marines, their Sergeant, was the only one who was cool. She had sat down and took off her headset, and waited for her sight to return. Michael had marched over to Raymond, and stood in front of her.

"So, you must be the assault team from Corneria" Mike had glanced at Raymond's rank insignia "tell me, miss Gunnery Sergeant, who sent you"

"God" Raymond said coolly.

"Wrong answer, who the fuck sent you?"

Her vision slowly returned, and she saw the blur that was Michael. "The corps." She said.

"Either you tell me or I'll start killing your men!"

She sat there, waiting for her vision to return completely, after a few moments, she could see clearly. "The Cornerian Planetary Navy."

_Shit, the Planetary Navy? _He looked a little anxious, and he turned to look at Wolf. "What the hell did you get us int- FUUUUCK!" When he turned he made a grave mistake, Sergeant Raymond had put him in a submissive arm hold with a Cornerian Type 1 blaster pressing against his back. "Alright, listen up morons… If I hear even so much as one of you curse, I'll tear poor husky here a new one."

"Tch." Wolf had trained his SMG sights on Sarge when he heard her.

"Hey, don't even think about it Cyclops, drop your weapon, and come down here."

"You little Bit-" She cut him off again.

"Hey punk, I wasn't joking." She looked around the hangar, most of the base personnel had put down their firearms, while the marines, though somewhat stunned, had picked up their weaponry.

"Fine…" Wolf dropped his weapon and began to come down, his hands above his head. Katt was about to shoot him when Griff had shot her a glance, telling her that it wasn't a good idea.

Leo was still hiding behind the CWIS controls, a FP-12 .45cal pistol in his paws, he shot a glance in the direction of his brother, who was being held by Sergeant Raymond. _Damn… Gotta do it…_ He leaped up and aimed at Raymond "Hey asshole!" he pulled the trigger and his arm twitched. Nevertheless his twitch had caused his gunshot to miss, but he triggered total chaos, about nine rounds from three marines had cut down the youth after he fired his handgun. Leo slumped against the controls for the CWIS and breathed his last.

"Leo!" Michael yelled before he was pistol whipped by Sarge, knocking him unconscious.

The Sergeant then went to grab her covert battle rifle, and spotted an avian workman wielding a shotgun, she didn't hesitate to fire a plasma bolt into the worker's head; blowing a cauterized hole in him about the size of a fist, and dropping him to the deck. "Fire at your own discretion!" she yelled as he picked up her rifle, and turned to run down the stairs.

Wolf then spotted Katt, "Goddamn it!" he ran frantically down the stairs of the third level catwalk, pulling a blaster from his holster and tried to get a bead on Katt, who he saw pointing her covert battle rifle at him. He shot recklessly in her direction, and he was very inaccurate.

"Aww hell…" Katt started to burst fire at Wolf, one, two, three bursts, missed. She growled and tried again. Two more bursts, and her target wavered. Of the 18 rounds, five of them had hit Wolf, three in the left leg, one in the right arm, and one in his left side just above the hip. "Heh… gotcha" she said as the blood mist sprayed from him, and he stumbled down the stairway, dropping his blaster to the floor thirty feet below. With that she began a mad dash for the stairs.

Muffled blasterfire, clicks, and screams filled the air as the marines pumped round after round into any anthro who dared pick up a weapon, and the bullets from the workman failed to penetrate the level three body armor that the marines wore. As Katt ran up the catwalk, she fired two bursts into one of the canine guards before he could fire at a marine. Griff saw her running and quickly gave chase.

"Fire in the Hole!" Yelled one of the workers as he pulled the pin on a fragmentation grenade. He cooked it for a few seconds, but as he jumped to throw it, three rounds from Katt's rifle had embedded themselves in his skull; dropping him instantly. Other workers in the area tried frantically to run from the dead anthro, but the grenade detonated too fast, anthros within 5 meters of the seemingly harmless blast were perforated head to toe by hundreds of tiny flechettes, either killing them instantly or flinging them to the ground in unbelievable agony, only to die from shock or blood loss. Everyone within 15 meters was brutally wounded by the small, but lethal metal pellets.

"Keep fighting! There's only seven of them!" Wolf yelled as he crawled up the stairway, he had reached the top when he heard clattering footsteps behind him, he tried frenetically to reach the SMG that he had dropped only minutes before. "Shit!" As he crawled, the sound of combat boots on the metal grating only got louder as he scrambled for the SMG.

"Take this!" Katt, who was the person behind Wolf, had given him a swift kick to the side, almost throwing him off the suspended walkway, and sending the already embedded bullet even deeper into his side. "Look at me!" she screamed, Wolf let out a painful groan, and turned over to face her.

"What the fuck… do you want?" he said, breathing heavily. Katt inched closer to his face, and pressed the muzzle of her rifle into his chest.

"Revenge… for taking him away from me." Her voice was forlorn.

"Who are you… talking about?" He was trying to stall her as he prepared to take advantage of her grief and turn the rifle on her.

Griff had just managed to get up the stairs, and was walking toward the two. "Hey…"

"You killed him, how could you not know!" Katt wailed. "You killed Falco!"

"Oh… him." He snatched the rifle in a fluid move, and turned it back at her, pressing the muzzle into her soft, unprotected lower abdomen. "Well, how would you like to be with him again?" he whispered. But her reaction was definitely not what he had expected

Katt smirked "Do it…"

"What are you-?" Griff then realized what happened, he heard two clicks, and saw her body jolt twice, two brass casings flew to the left. "Ms Monroe!?" He yelled, running to her, she stumbled backward and he dove to get hold of her.

"Die!" When Griff caught her, he found himself staring down the barrel of a battle rifle, then straight into the mechanical left eye of Wolf, who had a cynical smirk on his face.

A series of three loud clicks of dry fire were the only sound from the rifle, and Wolf's smile faded. "Looked like you're shit out of luck." Griff said hardheartedly, then he lunged forward just enough to strike the wounded lupine in the temple.

"Let me die…" He heard a soft voice, then realized that it was the pink neko that he was holding in his arms.

"Not gonna happen…" He said calmly, then he heard the sound of rattling grate, Raymond was on her way up, He looked back down at Katt and found that she had fainted.

Griff was on his way down the stairs with Katt, and met the Sergeant halfway. "Go ahead and bring her to the dropship, she'll be okay. But her fertility may be questionable."

Griff turned and looked at Raymond strangely "Mam? What do you mean?"

She almost laughed, "Oh I forgot that your sex organs are on the outside." She shook her head "Don't be so dense, two shots just below the navel from a subsonic weapon, those bullets are bound to be embedded in her uterus, or something in that area." Sarge walked up the stairs after her brief lecture. "Let's just say she won't be too happy for a while."

Griff was astounded, he didn't say anything; he just did what he was told.

Damarus had appeared in a secluded position to observe the outcome of the fighting; he shook his head and vanished.

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A/N: I hope you liked this chapter. Heheh… and on a side note, I am not copying Halo 2 for the battle rifle, there is a such thing, Fabrique Nationale's FAL is a 7.62NATO Battle rifle, it is even more widely used than Colt's M-4 / M-16 series, and Kalashnikov's AK series, you just don't hear about it much.


	8. Chapter 7: Disgrace and Redemption

Disclaimer: Starfox is copyright to Nintendo… not me… only Nicolae, Xavier, Kamille, Michael, etc. belong to me.

A/N: Hope you like martial arts. 3

FYI: I misspelled CIWS in the last chapter. (Close In Weapon System) Also, Veldtia is a communist nation, and Kamille's callsign, Koneko, means Kitten in Japanese.

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Chapter Seven: Love to hate

The morning after the covert assault, which went horribly awry but succeeded nonetheless; Michael awoke only to find himself on a metal grating, he rubbed his face where the cold steel had matted his fur. "What the hell… oh, now I remember." He stood and shook off the dust, but when he shook his head, he felt a sudden dizziness. _Ah fuck… the bitch must've hit me harder than I thought._ He cracked his neck and went down the stairs, the Hangar doors were wide open and the morning light shown into the hangar. Most of the equipment was still in one piece, but it wasn't the equipment that he was worried about, he searched for survivors, everywhere he look, there was the smear of blood, brass casings, spent magazines, burn marks from blasterfire, but few bullet holes, the marines almost never missed their mark. More than anything else scattered about was corpses, at least fifty Veldtian anthros were cut down, and each head had no less than two small dripping holes in them, no exit wounds, but the constant drip that lasted around eight hours developed mass pools of blood. Michael walked on, he looked coldly at the bodies; he came across the ones who were killed by the grenade, the look of revulsion and suffering frozen on their dead faces, the sight was morbid… "Hello!" He yelled aloud, he heard something, so he yelled again. "Is anyone here!?"

"Over here sir…" A weak voice answered, soon after, a wounded cobra had dropped from the fuselage of an unfinished WOLFEN3. He looked a little over nineteen years old.

"Khrushchev?" Michael ran over to help the young anthro snake to stand, "You okay Alex?"

"Yeah, it's just a blaster wound…" He held his cauterized wound that was on his hip "I'll live… but pops is gonna be pissed…"

"Well, I know who is responsible, the bitch Sergeant told me that our own planet's Navy had ordered the raid, apparently they were after someone."

"Who?" The Premier's son asked.

"Captain O'Donnell." Michael put on a pair of round sunglasses. "He's the only Body that I didn't see."

"Should have known that Wolf would cause trouble." The Premier walked into the hangar, took one look around and spat.

"Sir!" Michael rendered a salute across the chest, which was the form of salute in the Veldtian military. The young Cobra rendered one as well.

"Come with me, I hope that President Eldrich of Corneria doesn't mind a war."

"Dad you aren't…"

"I heard it myself, the Planetary Navy is under his command, after all he is the commander in chief of the Cornerian armed forces."

"Sir with all due respect, that's crazy, going against our own planet's defense department is suicide, they have weapons far beyond…"

"They will not use such weapons on their own soil, the impact on the environment is far too strong, Also we will be receiving help from the government of Macbeth, as well as an anonymous benefactor." He turned to the vehicle of which he arrived in, "Come, we have much work to do."

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Krystal stirred on Nicolae's couch, and opened her eyes, she saw a blur milling about. "Hello?" she said fuzzily.

"Good morning, Krystal" Nicolae had just hid his custom Mark I in his coat. "Did you sleep well?" He was wide awake.

She yawned, Nicolae studied her body as she stretched, "Yes I did, thank you." She smelled something, a slight hint of cordite, an unfamiliar scent to her, so she thought nothing of it.

"So, you ready to return to base?" He said "I only offered you to stay for your protection anyway."

"Want to get rid of me already? You shouldn't be so anxious around the opposite sex. if truth be told, I don't see how you are still single." She winked at him, _You aren't the only one with wandering eyes, some of the wolfesses and vixens on the beach shot some rather imposing glances, a lot wanted to ride black beauty._ She thought to him.

"I never noticed that…." He rubbed his chin. "You don't think the same do you?"

"Don't worry, I'm a good girl." She smiled. _Even though I've got way too much lust pent up._ She thought to herself, and then she found her eyes wandering, he apparently didn't wear a shirt under his coat, and he wore his pants quite low, she looked over his physique, ripped, lean, masculine, many words could describe what she saw, she licked her lips impulsively.

"Hey, you still with me?" He had a funny look on his face, and snapped his fingers to get her attention "First you say that you are a good girl, then you're looking over my chest, hey you even just licked your lips."

"Oh… sorry! I was alone for quite a few years until a couple of years ago, six years of lust just tends to get to you." She blushed.

"Well lets get you back to base before you end up giving in to your lust, and I thought I had problems." He quickly buttoned his coat. "So, after you mam." He opened the door.

"Such the gentle-fox, Fox really never gave me this kind of attention."

He rubbed his chin again "Can you tell me about Fox?"

"Sure, what I know about him." She said as they walked into the morning light.

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Xavier awoke from his slumber and rolled over, he jumped at the sight of Kamille, who lay nude on his bed. Then it hit him, he remembered their night. What had started as what seemed to be a wild romp, had turned into intense passion… What he felt was far from lust, she was in heat, feral, but he soon tamed her, it had turned from vanilla sex to sincere lovemaking.

He ran his right paw through her deep violet hair, which seemed to contrast with her silver fur, and then ran it across the side of her face, the inside fur color was a metallic white with a blue tinge.

_She looks like an angel; I've never really noticed how beautiful she is. _He thought to himself, and then he arose from his mattress, trying not to wake her. He rubbed his eyes as he looked into the mirror, smartly inspecting his figure, looking for signs of matted fur that would be visible in uniform, thoughts were racing through his mind about protocol, the military's modus operandi, nothing much about the last night, he was wondering not what the base commander would do, but the adjutant base commander, Brigadier General Geoffrey Fera. Geoff wasn't a cat to be trifled with, being a solid seven feet, he was a lumbering giant, but a gentle giant, unless you pissed him off. More thoughts raced through his mind as he jumped into the shower, he had been bathing for a few minutes when the thought came to him. _What if… oh son of a…_He dropped his soap, he didn't get her pregnant, but they were loud. "I hope he doesn't catch wind of this." He said to himself as he got out of the shower.

He walked back in to see her waiting for him, matted fur and wild hair. "Good morning, my snow fox."

"Good morning, my seraph" He returned the squeeze with a one armed hug. "We should hurry up and get going, I don't think your dad wants us to be late on the tarmac."

She had drawn closer to him, and a short; passionate kiss awoke her completely. "I'll get right on it…" she released the embrace and walked passed him, into the shower.

_Well, that was a first… but I wish her dad didn't force her into the academy._ Xavier was getting dressed in his flight suit when he heard Kamille in the shower. "Hey you used all the shampoo!"

"Uhh… Sorry!" Xavier felt funny, but he walked over to his desk, and opened a drawer, inside was a small, dusty box, he opened it and looked at the ring that he had bought before he joined the academy. _Maybe it should wait just a little longer…_He put the ring back into his drawer, and closed it. Then he noticed a paper on his desk

_Brigadier General Geoffrey Fera, written 0306 hours…_

He read the letter.

_It seems that your actions yesterday have called for commendations, for both of you. Also you both have been commissioned to Lieutenant Junior Grade by the Chief of Naval Operations himself, under other circumstances I would be in a joyous mood, but I tell you now LTJG Anthony, If I was an officer in the Navy, then I would have your head… but that is outside my power. I lobbied a way for you to be able to take care of my daughter, be glad that you even have my blessing._

_Waiting for you in hangar 3 is a new XF/A – 3c Delta Wyvern, it has a slightly longer fuselage, and the paint is custom as well, your commendations are Squadron Leader, and PGM officer. Your squadron will be dubbed as Cobalt, 142__nd__ tactical fighter squadron. Be on the tarmac at 0700 hours to meet with your squadron. Don't worry about the registry, the names have already been marked under the canopy. _

_Xavier If anything happens to my daughter, I swear, I'll have your enhancements ripped from your godforsaken body._

He went cold, but obviously the reaction of Kamille's father was less vicious than he would have thought it to be.

"What is that?" Kamille walked out the door, drying her hair. She sat down on the bed, and began putting on her flight suit which she had brought with her last night.

"It's a notice, it's from your dad… you ready to go work on our new Wyvern?" Xavier walked over to the door.

"Or new Wyvern?"

"It's a two-seater, and is more advanced than the ones that we trained in… They call it Delta Wyvern, wanna go see it?" He opened the door and led her through.

---In the infirmary---

Wolf was detained in a small room designed for inquisition and quick medical treatment if the procedure went to hell, a few rooms away from Katt's hospice room, he lay on the bedding, still dressed in his uniform pants, but his shirt was ripped off. Multiple fresh slash marks were on his torso, as well as patches of fur missing fur from repeated blows, his interrogation last night had left him badly scarred. A few "doctors" had entered the room, some holding instruments of torture, one holding a syringe full of some kind of blue liquid, "So, Mr. O'Donnell, you going to tell us something this time, or will we have to beat it out… your choice…" He said to the seemingly sleeping body that lay on the mattress. "Now, on with the cross-examination…"

He was bout to put the syringe into Wolf's neck when he shot to life, and grabbed the hand that held the needle and in a fluid move, broke the arm of his antagonist, and twisted, shouts of pain were amplified as the needle plunged into the carotid artery of the 'doctor', which then injected him with a lethal amount of a pain-inducing hormone. Wolf's antagonist stumbled backward, his eyes rolled back as he vainly cried out in agony, his lungs ran dry but his maw still held open, as if a silent scream was trying to escape. What he was feeling was like having ten thousand glass shards pierce his skull, into his cerebrum, all of the nerve synapses in his brain were systematically destroyed by an overload of chemicals, killing him within seconds.

"Get away from me!" The other 'doctors' were already attempting to subdue Wolf before their leader had even hit the floor, but to no avail, one was subdued by a swift kick to the chest, which broke seven ribs and caused his heart to quiver instead of beat, the damage would kill him soon.

Wolf used the remaining force from the kick to propel him off of the bed and flipped once before landing on his feet, he was glad that they didn't restrain him, but he had no time to think, another ran toward him with a sharp blade in hand, intent of slashing him to death. A painful yelp that turned into a nauseating gurgling came from Wolf's attacker after he spun around and grabbed the arm wielding the weapon, breaking his wrist and disarming him, and slashed the weapon across the throat of it's owner.

He dropped it to the floor as the next enemy blindly ran toward him, bearing claws. Wolf smirked and then spun around insanely fast, connecting his boot heel with the muzzle of his attacker, the kick followed through with such force that the instant twist of the receiver's neck had caused a disc in his neck to slip, the two bones went in opposite directions, slicing the spinal cord in half. The now dead adversary fell to the floor, tongue hanging limp and his neck wrenched around almost 130 degrees, far beyond it rotation degree threshold of 90.

The last adversary pulled a blaster from his holster, but the distance was too short. "Too close Kid." Wolf had kicked the weapon from him, and then grabbed his arms. "Should've used your claws." He said, and his adversary answered "Can it you bitch." He was going to spare him but his retort made him change his mind. Wolf let go of the young anthro's left arm, and open paw smashed him in the muzzle, there was no cry of pain, but a sound of crunching bone. His mouth gaped and his head jolted back. The young anthro's muzzle was buckled upward, and the base was indented severely inward, Wolf smiled as the cerebral fluid ran from the corners of his eyes and his nostrils, signifying that the broken bone had smashed into the hapless antagonist's brain.

Wolf let go of the dead anthro's arm, letting him fall backward. He grabbed the keys from the dead leader of the inquisitors, who had the look of immeasurable pain frozen forever on his face and the syringe poking from his neck. _Where the hell am I?_ He thought as he walked out of the metal walled room, no one was present, the halls were empty. He walked to the exit, almost disappointed, he wanted a more challenging adversary. "So where are you Fox? I know you're here somewhere." Before he left he sniffed the air, something smelled of roses, the feline from the hangar. He shook his head, he wanted to kill a worthy adversary, not a wounded female. Wolf traipsed through the door, and went on looking for his game, Fox. It wasn't long that he spotted his quarry, walking across the tarmac toward the barracks. "Gotcha."

Fox walked across the compound, toward the barracks, when something caught his eye. "Can't be…" He glared in the direction of the infirmary, at the grey lupine that stood.

"Wolf"

"Fox"

They said in unison, unfathomable enmity seethed in both of their veins. They were about fifty yards from each other, and Fox had his blaster, a sheer advantage, but after he unsheathed his weapon he turned to face Wolf, brought it up sideways, and pulled the slide back, ejecting the inert gas cell, and hit the magazine release, causing the power unit to slip out and fall to the ground with a clatter. Wolf watched intently as Fox took off his jacket, and shirt, the fight was going to be claw to claw… pure and simple.

"Come at me!" Wolf dashed toward his oldest enemy, both hatred and bliss ran though his mind, _a true challenge_. Fox did the same, but he was driven by his honor. The two clashed together like wild animals, Wolf threw a swipe at Fox's chest while Fox spun around to kick Wolf in the side, a small spray of blood went into the air as the lupine claws connected with flesh, and the resounding bludgeon of combat boot to Wolf's bare back, but even such fierce blows failed to quell them, they erupted into a flurry of punches and parries, as one threw a fist, the other would grab, and attempt to break the arm of his rival, only to have them break free to counterattack, the cycle of attack and defense went on for minutes, with neither side showing signs of fatigue, or acquiescence, until Wolf threw his deadly roundhouse, Fox had no choice but to jump up and take the hit in the left shoulder, which sent him into a fast counterclockwise spin, the momentum of Wolf's own kick had landed him in a left handed stance.

Fox landed with enough momentum to do a low sweep, and his sweep connected with the back of Wolf's knees, dead-legging him, and bringing him down to a kneeling position, which Fox took advantage of and tried a backhand like chop to Wolf's throat. Wolf had threw his weight backward, just fast enough to dodge the blow that would have downcast him, and flipped back up onto his feet, then ran and bounded toward Fox.

Fox had already brought himself to standing after the attempted throat chop, but he felt the impact of two steps on his torso, and the pain of the toe of a boot to his chin, Wolf had quite literally ran up his chest, and kicked him, knocking him to the ground.

Fox was now sore, and bleeding from the mouth. His left arm was broken near the shoulder from the roundhouse, and his tongue bitten because he had stuck it out to keep from losing consciousness from the sudden blow to his chin. Fox had no time to moan, he had to roll quickly to avoid a stomp, then quickly sit up to avoid the dreaded soccerball kick to the head, which would have broken his neck quickly.

Wolf has misjudged that Fox would move so quickly and kicked too hard, the force of his own soccerball kick threw him off balance, and he felt his leg collapse again, Fox dead-legged him with a backhand to the back of his knee.

Wolf came down with one leg still in the air, so he ended up in a front/back split, allowing Fox the time to recover.

Then Fox did something that Wolf really didn't expect, a quick right hook punch to his jaw. Wolf had to quickly shake off the dazed feeling from Fox's strong punch, only to be hit again.

It was around this time that Nicolae and Krystal had arrived. "Fox!" As soon as she saw him she ran to him, but his name being called distracted him, allowing Wolf the chance to subdue him with a simple throw, and to run, toward Krystal.

"Krystal!" Fox looked up and yelled. "Move!"

She took no time, and ducked, allowing Wolf to vault over her… he continued his race toward Nicolae, who was walking toward the tarmac and drawing his pistol.

"Get out of my fucking way!" Wolf kicked the weapon from Nicolae, and trampled him with the move that he did to fox earlier, he just didn't kick him in the chin. Instead he planted his right boot on top of the now humiliated vulpine's head, and bound off of him over the gate that stood behind him. Nicolae was overall unhurt, until he faceplanted into the grass. A moan of shame escaped the grey vulpine, who was now in a rather amusing position with the side of his face planted in the soft grass.

"Fox, are you ok?" Krystal immediately dashed over to Fox, leaving Nicolae in his embarrassing position.

"I'll be fine." He spat out the blood, and touched the teethmarks on his tongue. "But… Daaamn… thish … huuurth…" Krystal couldn't help but laugh, if anything, Fox was good at turning a bad situation into a funny one.

Krystal sighed and looked at his arm, which was shortened for some reason, obviously a fracture. "Are you sure?" She grabbed above and below the break.

"Yeah I'm f…" The sound of popping bone was heard, and 'I'm fine' turned into a howl of pain

"You really need to get surgery for this, but first lets put the bone back in place…" Another pop was heard as she rejoined the fracture, followed by another world of pain, and sobbing.

_So that's Fox?_ Nicolae brushed off, and watched as Krystal tended to him as if she was his mother. _No wonder she likes him, he's serious, but goofy._ He scratched his head and laughed. _I almost hate to have to…_He stopped thinking real quick, Krystal could hear him. "Ahh whatever." He stood, and looked around, he wondered what the new models that he had heard of before looked like; so he walked toward the hangar.

---about five minutes later in hangar ---

Xavier looked at the cockpit systems while Kamille was crawling all over their fighter, admiring the azure paint scheme, which has two bands of white that ran from fore to aft, one port side and one starboard. And on the entire aft was an intricate design of fire that ran to each wingtip. The registry read LTJG Kamille "Koneko" Fera, Cobalt 2, for the Precision Guided Munitions coordinator / copilot seat and LTJG Xavier "Kid" Anthony, Cobalt Leader, for the pilot. But he noticed something, the names had been switched recently. Originally Kamille was going to be Cobalt leader and the late Lyle Maynard was going to be the PGM coordinator. _They didn't call him Boomer for nothing, he was the best bomber in the whole unit._

"I still can't believe that dad had this done for me." He hopped off the starboard wing, "This is the paint scheme of my dad's car." She smirked

"And it is quite beautiful, as you are I might add." A voice, identical to Xavier's resounded in the hangar. Except it had a slight Veldtian accent, an alluring roll to the r was present.

"So, what's with the sexy voice all of a sudden." Kamille's ears perked up, and she sneered.

"I didn't say anything…" Xavier poked his head from behind the canopy, which, on this fighter was ballistic resistant glass, rather than the 360 degree camera system.

"That's quite the fighter there, what model is it?" Nicolae said.

"It's a Delta Wyvern, now answer me this… What are you doing here?" Kamille asked him, because protocol strictly states that no visitors are allowed in the hangars.

"Looking around…" Nicolae shrugged

"Well get out of here, you shou…" Xavier stood and looked at Nicolae, he went silent; surprise, and deep-seeded anger enveloped him… he knew whom he was looking at.

"Fine… I guess I'll be… leav-ing…"

"Don't move…You stay right there!" Xavier jumped off the fighter and pulled his jacket off.

"Hey kid, what have I done to… son of a…" He watched as Xavier peeled off the synthetic skin and fur from his enhancements, and plodded heavily toward him.

"Long time no see… brother." His metal ribs and mechanical arm shimmered in the light, even though they were covered by a skin-like shell of advanced, translucent polymer.

"Hmph… after all the years, you haven't forgiven me?"

"Tony, don't!" Kamille screamed, but Xavier didn't hear her, he was focused on one thing, his brother.

"You don't deserve it…." Xavier said as he lunged toward his long awaited prey.

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A/N: I hope you all liked the Fox/Wolf fight scene, as I thoroughly enjoyed writing it. 3 also, Veldtians have a very alluring accent, almost a powerful accent like Russian dialect, but more romantic, like the Spanish tongue. As for the cliffhanger, I've been typing this chappie for a while, I had to find a good place to stop. I may also change the story's name, but that may not happen.


	9. Chapter 8: The Dark Omen

Disclaimer: Starfox is copyright to Nintendo… and governments belong to their respected founders… not me, I just use them… only my original characters, countries, etc. belong to me.

A/N: Myaaah… need to get the ball rolling, but there's a surprise here.

FYI: Tony is short for Anthony, and Xavier Anthony is not my avatar. My fursona/avatar is Tony Cobalt Grey and he is a Wolfen… he is not in this fanfiction, and I do not plan on adding him either. Also I needed to write a way for communism to be on Corneria, so I added the name Marx Khrushchev. In our history, there was a man named Karl Marx, and he co-authored the Communist Manifesto along with a man named Friedrich, Marxism was communism based off of his writings. There's your history lesson for today..

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Chapter Eight: The Dark Omen

A resounding crunch could be heard as the metal fist struck the right arm of Nicolae, followed by a muffled yelp as he tried to take the pain. He was whipped about wildly as his brother Xavier grabbed him by the collar of his jacket with his natural arm. "Why… do you still hate me so much?"

"Because you took my father away… and my mother…. And my arm!" Xavier yelled as he backfisted Nicolae across the face, leaving a deep cut. Then he was about to punch him to death when his brother cried.

"They were my family too, Goddamn it!" Nicolae cracked, but he sucked it up after a few seconds. "Do, you really think that I wanted to do it, that I wanted to kill them and you... It was either a painless death by my hands, or torture from that bastard Leon."

"Who is Leon?" Xavier asked Nicolae, behind him Kamille was walking toward them.

"Who was he… Killed the bastard just the other day, told him it was because someone hired me, but in truth I did it of my own accord." Nicolae whispered

"I don't believe you…" He cocked his arm back for one final punch.

"Tony! Stop this!" But Xavier failed to hear.

"Stop!" A thundering voice came from behind Nicolae, the hangar door was open, outside stood the best three trainees, as well as the four other graduates. The metal fist stopped within a nanometer of Nicolae's muzzle, he had his eyes closed, awaiting the cold embrace of death, but it did not come; instead the click of gears stopping resounded and he was let go; then the hangar fell to an eerie silence.

The tall uniformed wildcat Geoff sighed, but stood his ground. Beside him stood Admiral Clarke, and the Chairman of Joint Chiefs; General Pepper. "Bad time?" Pepper asked sternly.

"Now we wouldn't want our shining star so tarnish his record now would we, we need all the pilots we can muster." Said Clarke. "The governments of our neighboring countries across the Orion Ocean, The Union of Veldtian Socialist Republics, Ceresia, Asea, Zakat, and the Collective Government of the planet of Macbeth. All of them have declared war on us."

"Sounds like another political issue if you ask me…" Xavier stared at General Pepper, who was once the head of state of Corneria, until the recent peace made military rule obsolete. "All of those places share a common government, the policy established by the long dead cobra Marx Khrushchev, and the wolf Mikhail Lenin, The Marxist, or Leninist policy."

"The socialites, collectivists, commies… you call our mother's people many things dear brother." Nicolae said. "I came back from Veldtia because I was tired of that snake's despotism, and to avoid capture for silencing that worm, Leon." He walked away waving his hand in a Veldtian gesture that meant 'Fuck off' at Xavier as he walked past the inspection line of pilots.

Xavier shrugged it off and stood attention.

"You're from Veldtia?" Kamille asked him, but he shook his head.

"Asea." Admiral Clarke said. "I've seen his records." Clarke walked toward the two who stood before him. "On to the matter at hand, Cobalt Leader… Cobalt Two… come meet your squadron, and support" Clarke gestured him to step forward.

Xavier knew all four of the other graduates who were his wingmen, Gunner "The Raven" McLain, Jack "Phalanx" Dingo, Ryan "Blaze" Richter, Kei "Birdy" Egret. Unfortunately he was unfamiliar with the other three trainees. He walked up to them and kindly asked their name and station.

The first trainee, a short catboy who seemed a bit young to be in the military, rendered a salute. "Sir, Bull Ensign Nicolas Dolittle, callsign Furball. It's nice to meet you." He said, nervously.

"Station?" asked Xavier.

"143rd tactical fighter/attacker squadron; Blackjack. Position is left flank, rear"

He Rendered a salute and dismissed each one as he walked past, all of them were Blackjack squadron. He learned the names and callsigns of those whom he would depend on in the near future, along with Furball was Marine 2nd Lieutenant Jose "Jackal" Williams, and , Air Force Lieutenant Travis "T-bone" Tucker.

"Where's Blackjack leader?" Xavier asked.

"She is currently in the infirmary…" Clarke answered

Right as Clarke broke the news to Xavier an Air Force Officer ran through the hangar doors, "Sir! I think you want to see this!" He was holding papers in his hands, and running frantically toward Clarke. He handed the papers to Clarke, saluted and ran out toward a transport truck, yelling orders and flailing his arms.

"Hmm…" Clarke read over the papers, he didn't even red half a page when he shouted an order to an airman to go get Krystal, and not long after he simply dropped the papers. "Gentlemen, it seems that we aren't safe here anymore, Cobalt airwing get to your fighters and take off ASAP, Blackjack, follow me."

---

"Oh come on!" Fox wrestled in bed as the doctors tried to put him under anesthesia. "I've had a lot worse than this!"

"Fox… just let them do it…" Krystal sighed

"No!"

The doctor sighed and said "Fox… we need you to cooperate otherwise you will be in intense pain." The surgeons behind him showed the surgical instruments, screws, and metal plates. "Those plates are going in your arm…"

"Aww hell no…"

A soldier poked his head in "Excuse me, Krystal… The Admiral wants to see you."

"Hmm?" She glanced toward the airman

"It's important." He replied.

"Oh…" She stood up and walked toward the door, and Fox's face twisted into a look of horror.

"Don't leave me!" he whimpered as the doctor injected the anesthetic into his arm. "Don't… guh…" Within seconds he was out like a light.

"I'll be seeing you, Fox." She left the room.

Krystal was on her way to the tarmac when Nicolae entered the door, holding his face. "What happened?"

"My brother… don't worry, it's nothing that concerns you." Nicolae said, "I need a suture."

"Lemme see it." Krystal stopped and examined his cut. _Looks like metal knuckles._

"Mam…"

"Oh sorry." She apologized to the airman, and then glanced at Nicolae "Nick, I have to see the Admiral, I'll talk to you later." She continued on toward the door.

"Da, same to you." He said before he walked into the office of the head nurse.

Krystal walked through the door, and jumped when she saw that she was surrounded by three anthros in jumpsuits and the top brass right in front of her. "Uhh… you could have, y'know, I was going to come to you."

"Well… Ensign..." Clarke handed Krystal a black helmet with two silver bars painted on it, and the name Blackjack One emblazoned in green above the visor. "Or should I say Lieutenant … uhh… What is your surname?"

"She doesn't have one, so just call her Krystal." Pepper corrected Clarke. "Carry on."

"Well, ahem… Lieutenant Krystal, your callsign is

"I don't need a callsign, just call me Krys"

"Ok then… well your station is Blackjack Leader. Congratulations, I'm sorry that it's not a formal as I'd wish it be."

"But I'm not in the service…" She responded.

"No you aren't, the two air wings Cobalt and Blackjack… well, are a whole new branch within themselves, a joint venture." Clarke said

"Admiral Clarke has been retired Navy since the Venomian war a few years ago." Pepper said, "His carrier, the Orihalcum, left service along with him… since then it has been modified, It's hard to explain."

Geoff smirked "The military wouldn't allow people with such little air time to fly sorties yet, or fly such expensive aircraft. The Wyvern Series, the training program, all jointly funded by us old war horses, and President Richard Edlrich. Prominence is also part of this venture, so we're bringing a few Marine and SEAL units with us. Hell the general public doesn't even know that we exist." He turned and dismissed the pilots to their fighters. "Krys, you should go get your flight suit and get ready to leave, a contact in the Veldtian Chain Of Command sent some info regarding a strike on this facility within five hours, we are bugging out as soon as possible. After you are airborne travel north northwest until you reach the Orihalcum, you'll be briefed when you get there."

"I'm leaving this in your hands, Admiral." Pepper said as he walked toward his personal vehicle. "Cantact me after you reach the Orhalcum."

"Yes sir!" Clarke saluted him.

"Carry on" Pepper said as he returned the salute , and then he entered his vehicle and left the premises.

---minutes later---

The base was in an uproar, anthros tossing clothes, weapons, ammo, fuel… you name it, into VTOL dropships, and the fighters began taxiing.

"Get these two on board that VTOL." Lambda unit and the doctors were moving Fox and Katt, to a medivac, and halfway across the compound, pilots were scrambling to their aircraft.

"Everyone on board the VTOLs, If it isn't nailed down, bring it with you!" A sergeant of Prominence yelled to his unit.

"If you can't find a ride, leave in a transport truck." A lupine Officer told his subordinates, who immediately got moving. He was checking that all the outside posts were clear when he was struck in the back of his head, a shirtless wolf holding a guardsman's stun stick kneeled down and grabbed the chin of the dazed Officer. "What the hell…"

"Sorry, but I need your uniform." Wolf then snapped the neck of the stunned lupine, and dragged him to a safe spot, then started to take his uniform.

"Hey Raven, Don't worry about clearance, just get off the damn runway! Take off!"

"Understood! Geez, give a bird a break…" He turned up the throttle and began his final flight checks, "Its because I'm black isn't it!"

"Just shut up and take off!" The ground control officer yelled before he turned and jumped aboard a taxiing VTOL dropship.

"Damn… alright let's move!" Gunner punched it, and tore down the runway, pulling up as soon as he reached 250 knots. Soon after the other members of Cobalt followed suit, But Xavier and Kamille were the fastest to get in the air, as soon as he lined up on the runway he just punched it.

"This is Kid, Cobalt is clear…and en route to Orihalcum."

"Roger, we'll meet you there." Clarke said, "I'm not leaving until every last one of my men is out of here."

"Go go go!" The second runway was turned into a lot for the VTOLs to load and take off, one after another.

"I don't care, get the damn fuel trucks on the transport, we're going to need all we can get. Get that damn ammo the hell off the tarmac and onto a transport!" The supply officer yelled about from the back of a transport craft, and then he looked at Wolf, whom was disguised as the Patrol Officer. "Hey! Grab something and get on board. We're getting the hell out of here!"

Wolf nodded and jumped aboard the VTOL, and as he got on it took to the sky. _Heh… right to the heart of the enemy._

"Yo, we aren't leaving that here, help me unbolt it and get six more anthros and a truck on it, We paid too much for this CIWS to lose it in a bombing." The weapons officer took a ratchet and started to unbolt the turret of the 15mm Close In Weapon System, after he unbolted it, he and a few soldiers lifted it onto a transport truck, after he wiped his brow he froze. "Everyone Get Down!" He yelled as a line of spewing concrete came toward them, The driver mashed the throttle and took off right before the line of miniature explosions tore across his position. Everyone soon realized that a Veldtian fighter just strafed the base. "Shit, someone grab a SAM, and shoot that damn fighter down!"

"This is Rybacr, coming around for a pass on the western runway. Suyokov, strafe the eastern AA sites before they light up the sky."

"Understood comrade." The second Veldtian fighter, banked hard left and fired two missiles, at two AA sites, blowing them apart before anyone could man them. And he strafed across the eastern wall with 20mm fire, a few soldiers who were in the path of his sabots were blown apart, some lost legs to the six inch long rounds, others were lucky enough to only get the concrete spray and survived. "Rybacr, I couldn't get all of them, heads up and watch for tracers."

"Copy… second pass." Rybacr's fighter came in for another strafing run when he saw a fighter take off. "Shit! One's airborne…" I can't engage, Suyokov… Take it out!"

"This is Krystal; I'm engaging." She maneuvered her Arwing as Suyokov fired a burst at her, she just barely dodged the deadly spray of tracers and sabots. "At least they aren't the same as Wolf's fighter." She bursted a spray of neon blue plasma at Suyokov, who said half a word before he was incinerated by the extreme heat. His fighter flew apart after a few seconds of sustained fire.

"You little… AWACS this is Rybacr, Fox Two!" Rybacr, fired a heat guided concussion missile at Krystal.

"Damn!" Her Arwing reeled heavily to the right as the missile slammed into her G-diffuser, and green steam sprayed from the engine casing. "I'm ejecting! Cover me!" She used what last alreron she had and maneuvered the Arwing to point at the control tower, which was evacuated.

"Roger" One of the AA crew said as he jumped onto a 14mm Anti Air turret that was mounted on the back of a Recon Vehicle, and spun the barrels up, in a matter of seconds the muzzle erupted with a sustained flame, and three tracers flew out every second, he leaded Rybacr's fighter until he saw a plume of smoke. "You're clear!"

"Gotcha, Ejecting!" Krystal then secured her sidearm and blew the canopy, the shock of the seat shooting from the cockpit like a cannon almost knocked her out.

"Damn… Rybacr punching out" He ejected a few seconds before his fighter erupted into a ball of fire his chute opened and he began radioing his position"I'm right above the Aaaagh!" but right as he started talking a stream of 14mm cannon fire cut him in half.

"Heads up!" Soldiers jumped away as his legs smacked into the ground. And a resounding rumble filled the air as Krystal's Arwing smashed into the unmanned control tower some debris fell onto a VTOL but no one was hurt.

"Take off! Go go!" Commanded T-Bone, as he gunned his throttle.

The rest of Blackjack took off at once. And went into active patrol. "We'll hang back until the base is clear, Leutenant."

"Thanks" Krystal said right before she landed safely on the tarmac. _Now what do I fly!_ She cut herself loose from her chute and ran back to the hangars near the eastern wall, hoping to find Fox's Arwing.

After minutes of searching she found Fox's aircraft, pummeled by cannon fire… it was positioned near the eastern wall, so Suyokov had strafed it, rendering the last Arwing useless. "Great…" she looked toward the last hangar "Wait maybe…"

"Is everyone clear?" Clarke asked the executive officer, That's everything, except one fighter, one X F/A-3c DeltaWyvern… its unregistered… but… Hold on someone's taking it.

Krystal began taxiing out of the hangar. "Blackjack squadron, This is Krystal, is the air clear?"

"This is Furball, Yes mam… you're clear."

"Admiral Clarke, that's everyone…" The pilot acknowledged.

"Alright, Set course for our carrier." Clarke commanded, and the VTOL lurched as it left the ground.

Krystal lined herself up on the runway and checked for foreign objects, then she looked to the north, a small black aircraft was bearing down on the base. "Isn't it too early? Well… here goes…" She punched the afterburners, and took off, not long afterward she was followed by the rest of Blackjack and Clarke's VTOL. She tuned into an intercept frequency, and waited."

It wasn't long after they left that the black craft, a tactical fighter/bomber named Dark Omen flew overhead. As it flew over, a single bomb dropped from its bay, and it began to climb. "Damarus, this is Dark Omen, minimum safe distance achieved, detonation in five, four, three… two…" said the pilot, his voice sounded frighteningly familiar to Krystal, but the video feed showed a masked individual.

"No, it can't be!" she looked back, but immediately had to avert her stare as the sky lit up brighter than Solar. _Damn! Is that a Novastar bomb!?_

The buildings on the outskirts of Corneria City were suddenly bludgeoned by a powerful shockwave, overturning vehicles and sending unfortunate anthros into walls, pounding them into a morbid mess of blood, shattered bone, and strewn entrails; a quick death, or throwing them down the street battered and bruised, and lucky to be alive. The area that was once the base, was now an immensely bright and hot fireball, in seconds the blast dimmed and cooled, and all that was left was a rising plume of fire and smoke.

"Dark Omen, report BDA" a voice said through the radio.

"Roger, the target area has been pulverized, all that can be currently seen is the debris cloud, and the mushroom fireball… the area around the target has been obscured by the dust that was kicked up by the blast wave, small vehicles have been overturned, houses are damaged severely, anyone within the bast radius is probably beaten to a bloody pulp. Hmph… the buildings on the outskirts of the city have suffered ample damage, but they will hold, sadly."

"Alas, I knew that a one-kiloton blast would be sufficient, Can you give me an estimate of loss of life?"

"Id say about 100 to 1,000 casualties, unable to confirm."

"Good… lets hope for the latter result my good partisan, RTB"

"Roger Damarus, returning to base." The uniformed avaian took off his helmet, revealing a horridly scarred face. "Little girl… don't think that I don't know that you are watching… send Fox a message."

"Y-yes?" She couldn't believe what her screen showed, Falco… the blue avian whom crashed into the sea just the day before…

"Time to die…" The feed cut off as Falco said those chilling words.

"Sir did you…?" the pilot of Clarke's VTOL said.

"See that? Yes son, I did…" Clarke replied.

---four hours later, at the remains of the Cornerian base---

A Veldtian bomber flew over the smoldering ruin of the Cornerian academy/base, the pilot almost gawked at what he saw. "AWACS, This is Grey 6, It seems that someone beat us to Corneria"

"What do you mean Grey 6?" The communications officer on the AWACS radioed the pilot of the large bomber.

"Kapitan Oka… Sir, the base has been completely wiped out." The astounded pilot said.

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A/N: I hope you liked it.

FYI: Nuke talk… One kiloton (Kt) is equal to one-thousand tons of Trinitrotoluene (TNT) That is one helluva bomb. Id say that a Novastar is a 0.01 Kt blast, which is still very strong; 100 tons of TNT. (Novastar is the bomb on Starfox 64) The Okalahoma City bomb was estimated to have a yield of 0.002 Kt, just as powerful as 20 tons of TNT, just to give you an idea of exactly how powerful one Kt is.

It takes only a 10 kiloton nuclear blast to severely damage a city, Hiroshima was decimated by a 15 kiloton blast.

The first nuke ever built and tested… Trinity, had a yield of 22 Kilotons.

Another unit of measure is the Megaton, roughly equivalent to **ONE**-**MILLION TONS** of TNT, (Will be used later in the fiction, the Wyvern class will have Novastar bombs replaced by the 1 Megaton yeild Helios Cold Fusion Bomb; a clean Hydrogen bomb a.k.a. 'H-bomb', and Damarus will most likely have a 100 Megaton yeild Fission-fusion-fission bomb, a three stage H-bomb, most basic H-bomb design.)

The larges bomb made by humans was _Ivan, _a three stage H-bomb had a yield of exactly 57 megatons (Originally was going to be 100 Mt but russians wanted to minimize the aftereffects and fallout), it was named by the United States as _Tsar Bomba_, which means "Emperor of Bombs", the blast was so massive, that it was deemed too dangerous for war, but instead was used as propaganda, showing the world that Russia triumphed over the U.S. in the nuclear arms race.

The mushroom cloud extended 40 miles into the atmosphere before it dissipated.

The U.S.'s most powerful bomb was _Castle Bravo_, it was a three stage hydrogen bomb that had an explosive yield of 15 megatons. (Which is a firecracker compared to the Russian _**Tsar Bomba**_.)


	10. Chapter 9: Sweet Revenge

Disclaimer: Starfox is copyright to Nintendo… and governments belong to their respected founders… not me, I just use them… only my original characters, countries, etc. belong to me.

A/N: When on the Orihalcum, I'll use the position inside the ship when the story moves to a different character, if they are in a different area.

FYI:

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Chapter Nine: sweet revenge.

_Journal Entry: March 1__st__, 2756_

_It's only been three days since we arrived at the Orihalcum, a carrier floating in the Northern Orion Ocean, coming here we could see the icebergs and snow covered islands, but even this serene setting cannot take away the image of destruction, three days ago…_

_And that voice… he should be dead… why did he do that?_

_I wish I knew…_

Krystal put down her pen, and sat at her desk in the one of the officer's berthing compartments, the clock beside her read 0130 hours; it was still early in the morning.

"Mam… you really should get some rest." Kamille's soft voice emanated from the rack behind her, "We can't undo what's been done."

Krystal simply sat there. Then after a minute of thought she turned to face Kamille, fatigue was evident in Krystal's eyes. "I wish that wasn't true." With that, she stood up and walked toward the iron door.

"Where are you going?" Kamille asked.

"I need some fresh air." She unlatched the airtight door, and walked through the passageway to the sharp stairway that led to the airlock. She walked through the airlock, which was open. As she stepped out onto the atmospheric flight deck, she was met by the refreshing sea breeze. _Maybe waiting for Solar to rise will ease my mind. _She thought as she sat down on the deck.

"Miss Krystal…" The voice of the old warhorse Clarke came from the airlock.

"Yes…" she answered, looking over her shoulder.

"I understand what you're going though…" He stood beside her, crossed his arms, and took in the salt-air.

"Sure you do…" She griped.

The Admiral let out a deep, heavy sigh. "I came here to ask you if you were interested in taking part in an operation that will be taking place at 0600 hours, I know it's a quick notice, but our Intel has found a hole in the Veldtian line… If you're interested, come to the briefing room in thirty minutes." He said coolly, and then went about his business.

Krystal closed her eyes, and sighed. _Why does this have to happen?_

--- Medical deck, Starboard side, aft.--- a few minutes later---

Fox lay on an infirmary bed, an IV stuck in his arm on a time release injected powerful anesthetic in fifteen minute increments, his high from the last injection was wearing off and pain was returning, but so was his mind. _Damn… how long do they plan of keeping me here… I've had worse!_ He thought but then he noticed the lack of restraints. "Heh…" _should've never removed them…_ The timer on the readout read 14:58; he didn't hesitate to pull out the catheter, which shot out a stream of clear fluid right after he removed it. "Shit… almost put me back into lala land… I gotta get out of here." He said to himself, but then he realized that the stitches on his arm were fresh. "Crap! What the hell did they do to me!" He ran for the door, ripping off medical devices, and wrestled out of his robe.

Fox was about to open the door when he realized that the robe was all he was wearing. "Oh hell…" He blushed slightly as he put the robe back on. "Where's my damn pants?" He looked through drawers, and cabinets, all he found was medical equipment. "Ah Shit!" He yelled.

the physician in Katt Monroe's room had heard Fox's muffled yell. "Hey Corporal, you hear that?" he asked the guard, who was none other than Griff.

Griff only shrugged, his attention was on the pink feline who lay in the bed in front of him, he was watching her vitals attentively, making sure that nothing went wrong.

"I guess I'll go check it out…" The physician stood and walked out the door. A hint of nervousness surrounded him as he walked over to Fox's door, unaware of the vulpine that just walked up behind him. He went to open the door when his felt a strong arm grip around his neck.

"Hey… what's the meaning of this?" Fox was very agitated, he hated doctors apparently.

"We… We're only trying to help…" The physician stuttered, but he was met by a strangling squeeze, in a matter of seconds he was out cold.

_Sorry buddy… but I need your clothes…_ He thought as he dragged the unconscious canine doctor into his room.

Back in Katt's room, Katt had awoke, finding herself in her current predicament, she freaked, and started ripping off the monitoring equipment, she jumped out of the bed, but a sharp pain in her stomach brought her to her knees, and though she wanted to scream, she merely groaned.

Griff had fallen asleep from fatigue, but his attention was brought back when he heard the ringing beep from the heart monitor "What the hell!?" He turned to look, and she was laying on the floor, holding her abdomen, and wincing in pain. "Hey… Miss Monroe… take it easy!"

She looked back at Griff, the look of hatred… "Where is Wolf?"

"I haven't seen him… you shouldn't worry about him… he's probably dust now… we're on board the Orihalcum, the academy was reduced to ashes by a small nuclear device." Geoff rubbed his eyes, and yawned. "He's gone…" He said as he got up and walked over to Katt to help her up.

"Nuclear Device!?" Katt said as he picked her up "I thought those were banned back in 2617."

"Apparently not…" Griff replied

---meanwhile---

Fox walked back out into the hall and came face to face with a heavily armed and fully equipped Prometheus Advanced Warfighter (PADWAR), Jennifer Raymond, who smiled and said "Glad to see you're doing well Fox."

"Hrnn… I thought you were gonna use lead instead of using sedatives." Fox said unpleasantly, his eyes locked on the Sergeant's

"I'd never think it, I was coming to get you out of the infirmary, The doctors said that you had been giving them ten different kinds of hell anyway…" She looked at the doctor behind Fox. "Scratch that… lead sandwich?" She asked coldly as she aimed her pistol at Fox's head.

"H-HEY I didn't kill him!" He put his good arm up.

Raymond responded by sheathing her pistol. "Looks like they were right, you're a sitting duck. I heard that we have a person on board who fits the description of Wolf O'Donnell so taking you out of the infirmary is a precautionary measure."

"Where the hell are we anyway?" Fox asked.

"Well, You can't get off this station, unless you like seawater… we are on board the Prometheus class supercarrier CRS Orihalcum, and before you ask about your Arwing, it was probably pummeled to a scrap heap from the nuke that was dropped on the academy."

"What? They couldn't save it?" Fox fumed.

"Krystal said that it was pretty much useless after the strafing run from one of the Veltian fighters that attacked a few days ago…" Raymond replied. "But that's the least of our worries."

"What do you mean ou…" Jennifer hushed him.

She scanned the passageway with her electronic equipment that was mounted to her helmet, she pushed Fox as her HMD lit up with a threat alert.

"What the hell?" Fox asked, then he heard the sound of a rifle burst and bullets ripping Kevlar. Jennifer fell from the impacts, and she scrambled behind an iron bulkhead and readied her CBR-15OICW, which was the covert battle rifle with a 40mm underslung grenade launcher and gun camera along with other mounted indirect fire equipment.

"Well if it isn't the bitch again!" The lights down the passageway were out, signifying that Wolf was in the shadows. "And Fox too! Heh two birds with one stone."

"Hey! What did I say about calling me a bitch! I'm a cheetah you moron!" She cringed as she pointed the gun out and used the indirect sights to fire down the passageway at Wolf's position, the sound of pinging metal and Kevlar impacts were evident, followed by the bloop from the launcher and loud report of a 40mm antipersonnel grenade.

"Aww hell!" Wolf said as he ran away from their position, he wasn't wounded, but he was bruised from the impacts.

"Damn … body armor…" Jennifer said.

"Guess that means that your weapon is useless." Fox said before he looked, "Hey are you ok… oh no." Fox said as he saw blood

"His… His wasn't though… He's using one of our new rifles… 5.7x51mm caseless, capable of penetrating level three flak armor… Fox…… hurry and find an adrenaline shot…… one should be in the cabinet in the room behind you…" She took off her armor and shirt and wielded her combat knife, the three bullets had gone into different parts of her torso, but they weren't deep or lethal. One had grazed her right side, so she folded her shirt and placed it under her arm to apply pressure, another was below the right breast, which she pulled out quickly, the other one though was at the top of her right breast, lodged in about an inch, nonlethal but very painful, and able to induce shock, which could incapacitate and eventually kill her.

Fox was already frantically searching in his room for the adrenaline shot, after a minute of searching he found it, and then hurried to the door. He didn't see that she had removed her tops, so he was unaware of what he was about to see.

The first reaction of the vulpine even got Griff and Katt's attention. "What the!? Hey hold on a second! I didn't expect this!"

"Just… shut up… you mean you haven't seen breasts before?" She held out her left paw. "Gimme the damn syringe-gun." She commanded; eyebrow twitching.

Fox did as he was told, sat near and watched.

The cheetah had put the needle into her neck, and then pulled the trigger, the mixture of adrenaline and electrolytes gave Jennifer a quick upstart. She tossed the syringe-gun aside and sat up. "Now Fox… I need you to be very mature about this."

"Uh… huh…" Fox nodded.

Raymond's eyebrow twitched more "**So Stop Staring At My Puppies**!" she said rather sternly, but not without a snicker. "You can look, just **don't ****stare**!"

"Yes mam…" Fox ignored Katt's laughs which came from down the passageway.

"Just wait until Krystal hears this…" She looked on

"Krystal?" Griff asked

"Fox's vixen" She answered.

"oh" He scratched his head. and began walking down the passageway toward the two, carrying Katt with him.

"Now Fox… I need you to do as I say." She said to him.

"I'm listening…"

"I need you too feel for the bullet, after you find it, I need you to pull it out…"

"Do What!?" Fox screamed "First you tell me I can't stare at them, then you tell me I gotta feel them?" He raised his eyebrow.

"Then consider yourself lucky…" Her eyebrow twitched again. "It's not wise for me to be working on myself anyway, I was supposed to have you do the bandaging and treating of my other two wounds… but I could easily take care of them myself."

Well after I find it How am I supposed to remove it?" Fox asked.

"With your fingers… You think I'm going to let you pluck it out with a knife? I don't think so! I like my puppies!" She snorted.

"Uhh how old are you miss Raymond?"

"Is that your goddamn business?" She sighed "I'm twenty…"

_That's young for a MGSGT. _Fox thought, then he inched his paw forward, blushing.

"If you smile… I swear…" She mumbled, eyebrow still twitching.

_Oh man…Well at least krystal isn't here. _His fingers touched the soft fur.

"Whatcha doin' Fox?" Katt said. Griff held her up, while diligently keeping his eyes closed.

"K-Katt!?" Fox then just grabbed it, and Raymond's face went red.

"Shoo… go away… he's trying to…" Raymond was cut off.

"Get to know you better?" Katt said jokingly.

Raymond pointed at the red fur, and the dark colored hole, which didn't bleed much.

"Oh… I see…" Katt said.

_Ok… is it there… no that's not it… hmm lets see…_ His hand ran across Jennifer's nipple, which made her a little exited… though she tried hard to keep a stern face. _Lets… see… Aha!_ Fox hound a hard lump under the skin, just above and to the left of the entrance wound, then in a matter of seconds he pulled out the lead. "There!" Fox looked at her face, which was lit up with a smirk.

"You know… you didn't need to fondle with it…"

"Eheh… ummmm I'm sor-…" He felt a sharp pain in his crotch as she punched it. And he quickly doubled over, face first into her cleavage.

_Well I didn't plan on __**that**__…_she thought as she pushed him off.

"What was that for?" Fox asked, high pitched.

"You smiled." She said, smirking.

---Amid-ship---

Wolf had returned to the armory, his unarmored calfs bleeding in scattered spots from the grenade's flechettes. He pulled up the lower parts of his torn trousers, revealing the perforated skin beneath. "That whore…" He then picked up some gauze from the medkit that was on his stolen PADWAR armor, the nametag read the name of the guard that he had killed at the academy. "First I'll get her… then the blue bitch… and then Fox…" He tied up his bleeding leg.

"Man… as soon as I get on this damn ship they take my pistol… why the hell did they have to put it in the fuckin' armory of all places."

"Hmmm…" Wolf stood up as he heard the voice through the door, he managed to hobble over to the bulkhead adjacent to the door that led to the main starboard passageway. As the door opened and his target walked through, and the stock of his CMR-C68 rifle into the base of the unfortunate anthro's neck, stunning him. "Well well well… who do we have here?" Wolf laughed "Nicolae… so nice of you to drop in…"

"Wolf…" Nicolae said while holding the base of his neck, he scrambled to stand, but was met with the cold muzzle of the rifle.

"That wouldn't be wise." Wolf held his weapon on Nicolae as he made his way to the door, "Do you know a way off of this ship?"

"Air…… you need an aircraft…"

"Well then thanks for the Info… you do remember our deal right?"

"Deal's off…" Nicolae spat.

"Tch… whatever…" Wolf checked the passageway, once he saw that it was empty he moved on, up toward the flight deck.

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Krystal was in the briefing room, which had a large view-port that overlooking the flight deck. She was sitting near the observation port when an AV-04a 'Raptor' VTOL gunship shot to life. "Wait… isn't he supposed to be cleared first?"

Wolf had shot the pilot, and used his paw to clear and rewrite the biometrics on the gunship, after making use of the ill-fated pilot's pawprint to change the biometric encoding; he tossed the limp body aside, and jumped into the cockpit. "Too easy…" Wolf had set the engines to full, and the gunship lifted off of the deck, small arms fire erupted from the deck near the airlock but all the plasma bursts and bullets merely dented the gunship's fuselage.

Krystal backed away from the windows as it swung around, pointing at the briefing room. "What is he?"

"Well now, if it isn't the blue bitch!" The speakers boomed loud enough for Krystal to hear. "Well seeing that you're such an easy target… why the hell not?

Krystal froze, and her eyes widened, fear consumed her mind as the barrels on the wing mounted miniguns on the gunship began to spin.

"Fox will get the message…" The twin miniguns erupted into a hail of gunfire, and he rotated the gunship to sweep across the room. The sound of shattering glass and ripping metal filled the air, along with the sound of brass casings striking the deck.

_I'm going to die!_ Krystal thought as the tracers got closer to her, then she felt the vice-like grip of two arms, then darkness.

Maniacle laughter blared from the speakers of the gunship as rockets smashed the briefing room into oblivion. The laughs and gunfire subsided "Hmph, for such a beautiful creature to die like that... It's fucking rich!" He laughed ever harder and switched the twin G-diffusers to level flight, and the gunship reacted by taking off in the direction he was pointed. The slow gunship circled around the Orihalcum once, to take one last look at the smoke plume before flying off toward Veldtia.

Admiral Clarke, his second-in-command Geoff Fera, and the Blackjack members were on their way to the briefing room when the gunfire started, Clarke ran to the airtight door, but he was instantly knocked back by the explosion.

"Admi… al… Admir.l……et up……….. Admiral Clarke!" Clarke came to, he was face to face with Jose, except Furball, he was thrown into a bulkhead and knocked cold.

"Ah shit… what the hell just?" The Admiral asked as his vision returned, he looked at Jose's face, his left eyelid had been sliced off by a metal fragment, which was embedded in his left eye. "Leutenant… your."

"I know… but sir… you take precedence." Jose was unsheathing a knife, ready to cut out his own eye.

"Don't do that…" Clarke said. "tell me, what's wrong with me… that's so important…"

"You've been impaled sir… the door was blasted apart, and well… you've been run through. Furball was knocked out by the blast. Fera didn't make it" Jose pointed over to the blood stain on the wall, The upper torso of Geoffry was on top of the door, which was jammed into the bulkhead, his lower abdomen, forearms and legs however, were torn from his body and strewn across the passageway.

Clarke cringed as he looked over at his old friend. But he was shocked again as Tucker held up a damaged golden headdress. "Sir…"

"Goddamn it……" Clarke shook his head, but he soon froze.

"Sir!?" Tucker ran to the Admiral, and put his paws on his face and shook him to revive him, he let go, and Clarke fell limp.

"Shit…… Shit!" Tucker yelled as the emergency response team came into the hallway.

"What's…" The medic didn't even get a chance to ask.

"They're dead… They're all dead…"

A/N: I hope I don't make anyone mad…


	11. Chapter 10: Black Raven part 1

Disclaimer: Starfox is copyright to Nintendo… and governments belong to their respected founders… not me, I just use them… only my original characters, countries, etc. belong to me.

A/N: This chapter will be split into two parts. And I didn't kill Krystal…

FYI: Trinity, Crossroads Able and Baker and Castle Bravo, Romeo, and Koon are all names of nuclear tests.

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Chapter Ten: Operation: Black Raven part 1

Krystal suddenly found herself in an almost pitch black room, and then the arms let her go. She instantly turned around and was face to face with a cloaked figure.

"It's been a long time, Krystal… but I doubt that you remember me." The cloaked figure, none other than the Macbethian Kaiser, Guitrez Damarus took off his hood, revealing pale white and ruby red fur, his eyes were black as onyx, and seemed just as cold.

"Who are you!? Where am I?" Krystal tried to back away, but quickly found that she couldn't move. She saw that he had his paw extended toward her, and his eyes glowed cold blue.

"It matters not where you are, but I… well lets just say that I will soon be a part of you… but if you insist, I am Guitrez Damarus." He kept his paw extended and walked toward her. "Krystal… There is no reason to be afraid." His voice changed, no longer cold and emotionless, and his eyes turned emerald green, but his fur still was red.

"What!?" She looked around the room, and saw Falco standing in the shadows. _What is he doing here!?_ She thought.

_You'll find out soon enough…_ He smiled.

"Let me…" Before she could finish, a psychic pulse from Damarus knocked her out.

--- Orihalcum ---

_Journal Entry: March 1__st__, 2756, Jose Williams_

_The time… 0210 hours… three days after the catastrophe at Corneria city, we're hit with this bullshit… Not even a few hours into the war and we've already lost three, all in position of command. The admiral, the adjutant commander, and Blackjack leader… well… Blackjack lead hasn't been confirmed; we only found her headdress, no blood, no body parts… and now I look just like the bastard who did it._

_This is personal now…_

_Journal Entry: March 1__st__, 2756, Xavier Anthony_

_Time 0230… Why did this have to happen? Fox went rampant, there is already a few dents in the bulkhead of his room, but we've managed to calm him … Kamille however, almost lost it… but she is a strong girl, she has lost her mother, and some close friends… and now her father… she is stable enough for the operation._

_Wolf is going to pay for this… and so is Veldtia. I have just been assigned by General Rufus Pepper as the coordinator of this op, as well as the spearhead, the new adjutant commander is none other than MasGunSgt. Jennifer Raymond. This is probably the only time in history that the commanders were also combatants._

--- Stern, lower deck, rear launch port. Time: 0255 hours ---

Xavier, and Jennifer walked onto the lower launch deck, which had a Mako class sea/air assault carrier docked inside. In his hand was a folder marked with the name Black Raven.

"Good morning Marines" Jennifer said to the three groups of Prominence Marines who were either sitting in a folding chair, or on the deck.

"Good morning Mam." They answered in unison.

"I can't hear you, I said Good Morning Marines!"

"Good Morning Mam!" They screamed, inciting an "Ohh-Rah" from Jose.

Jennifer moaned, "Ooooh that's the way I like it!"

_Damn… these marines can be a bit odd…_ Fox thought to himself.

Xavier cleared his throat, after almost choking on a laugh from Jennifer's display. "Gentlemen, It may come as a surprise but I have been informally designated as the commander of this ship by the Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Pepper. I will now begin the brief, please bear with me; this is my first time being given this kind of responsibility."

Kamille stood beside him, along with Jennifer Raymond. Fox sat in the crowd, leaning back with his feet propped up onto an empty chair.

"We had received an order, around 0100 hours this morning that said, and I quote. 'Zulu time 0500 hours; grid India Foxtrot, 34.92N 150.02W.' For those of you who are not proficient in military code, this is Veldtia's largest beach, which connects to the Zeram Desert; we are to attack in two hours." Xavier cleared his throat. "The Marine unit here will join up with the Army's 128th Tank Battalion, and the Marine's 122nd Artillery Platoon. And spearhead an assault to overtake Zeram Beach."

"Blackjack squadron is to provide close air support to the invading ground forces, the following is whom they are and their monikers, 122nd Artillery Platoon, Trinity. 82nd Prominence Company, Crossroads Abel. 128th Armor Battalion, Crossroads Baker."

Fox, whom had been designated as the new Blackjack lead nodded his head in reply. "I understand."

"Now, Cobalt has been entrusted with another duty, one that in other circumstances would be considered heinous, each of the three Delta Wyvern aircraft have been loaded with a Helios bomb, a Tellar-Ulam nuclear device capable of destruction on a massive scale, Cobalt squadron is to go in ahead of the main force, and attack these installations." He brought up a map of the area on the main screen which showed three military installations, each one about thirty miles apart, and about fifty miles inland. One was at the end of a canyon that was carved into a plateau, one was in the middle of the desert between the plateau and a mesa, and the last one was inside of a mesa. "Gunner and Phalanx will take the northernmost installation, coded Castle Romeo. Then Blaze and Birdy are to attack the southern installation, coded Castle Koon. And lastly, Koneko and I are to attack the center installation, coded Castle Bravo. The tree explosions will signal the beginning of the operation, expect enemy forces to converge on us in less than an hour. Good hunting, Marines." He walked off toward his Delta Wyvern, followed by Kamille.

"It's about goddamn time that Solar rose four times in one day!" Gunner yelled from the back of the hangar, which brought the crowd into an uproar.

"Hell yeah! Let's roast us some fuckin' Veldts!" Blaze yelled out while running toward his fighter, which called for more cheers.

Jennifer walked up to the podium, and laughed. "Hey, what the hell is this? I can't hear you! What the hell are we going to do this morning?"

"Gonna kill us some Veldtian Bitches!" The marines screamed out

"Oh Hell Yeah!" Jennifer thrust out her chest, arched her back and threw her tail up, and screamed. "More Baby! That's what I want to hear!" and purred loudly after her display of feminine pleasure.

"Ohh-Rah!" Most of the marines replied, whereas others let out a loud 'w00t'.

"Alright, Marines off your asses, lets go!" Jennifer yelled, and then she started calling a cadence as she double timed toward the amphibious assault crafts, followed by the rest of the marines. "Left, Left, left right…"

Then one of the Marines began a Jody, everyone chanted along.

_What the? Ahh it's better if I not ask._ Fox thought as he stood up.

"Hey Fox… you cool?" Jose put a paw onto his shoulder, his eyepatch made him look almost exactly like Wolf.

"Yeah, I'm good." Fox replied, and began walking toward his single seated Delta Wyvern.

--- location: Amphibious Assault Ship; CSAS Lynx, 50 miles off coast of Zeram, time 0320 hours. ---

Jennifer stood on the deck of the multipurpose ship, which rose only a few feet out of the water, facing her company of marines, holding the new CMR C-68/AM-90 and CRR-10 Multipurpose Anti-Armor Weapon System (MAAWS) "Alright Marines, You haven't been briefed on the new PADWAR weapon systems so I'm giving you a crash course, This is the CRR-10 MAAWS." She held up the launcher portion of the MAAWS, which had a large eyepiece connected to a laser "It is a tube loaded, recoilless rifle that fires a forty-millimeter, delay launch High Explosive Anti Tank, or HEAT missile. It may not look very big, but this is half of the package." She took a two foot long tube marked 'HEAT' emblazoned in yellow and 'THIS SIDE FRONT' with an arrow pointing to the tube's front from one of the three cylindrical packs on her back. "You load the weapon like so" She connected the rear tube to the launcher, and held the launcher on her shoulder. "This new weapon is a bit tricky to operate so I will now demonstrate." She aimed the launcher out to sea and depressed the trigger.

An audible click was heard, and in a second what sounded like a burst of compressed air sounded off, and the missile shot out of the end of the launcher but it left no smoke trail. It tilted up and then took off like a rocket. "The missile will strike whatever you point this laser at, so if you can keep an aircraft painted, you'll hit even that." She aimed the launcher at a different part of the ocean, and the missile responded by going directly at the target area. When the missile hit the ocean a large splash went off, as expected. "You can also dumbfire the missile if needed."

Jennifer then dismantled the weapon and placed it on her back, and the spent tube back into the cylindrical case. "The tubes are recycleable, so hold on to them if possible." Then she took showed her assault weapon to the group. "This is the C-68 Cornerian Modular Rifle, a five point seven by fifty one millimeter caseless rifle. Which means you southpaws don't need to worry about spent casings and hot gases. Your magazine loads in the stock like so" She inserted the long magazine into the bottom of the stock, "It holds sixty rounds, and fires in the three round burst configuration, which means you have precisely twenty bursts from this baby before you run out of ammo. It has an underslung AM-90, a twenty-five by ninty nine millimeter single load payload rifle, which is essentially a beefed up grenade launcher capable of shooting like a sniper rifle. You must hold on when firing the payload rifle, and even with it's three stage muzzle break its recoil is still unforgiving. I will now demonstrate." She planted the rifle butt firmly onto her shoulder, loaded the 3 ½ inch long cannon round into the rifle, moved her finger down from the rifle trigger to the trigger below it, and aimed out to the sea. "Cover your ears." She laid her ears back, pressed the rifle against her shoulder, and squeezed the trigger.

She was not blown off of her feet, but she staggered backward from the recoil, and the muzzle flash was a whopping three feet long, even though it has been split in thee directions it looked like she fired a small artillery piece. A splash about 500 yards off in the distance could be seen as the high explosive shell hit the surface of the water.

The report from the rifle was heard from the CSAS Dachshund, which was about 200 yards behind the Lynx. And the artillery liaison shouted through the radio. "Goddamn it Raymond, You really want to show off don't you? Well take this." And a laugh from the gun crew sounded through the radio. The deck of the Dachshund had one of the Latitude self propelled howitzers on it, which aimed it's 200mm cannon at a high angle.

Raymond looked at the Dachshund and laughed. "Great, that old warhorse is here… and he hasn't changed a bit" she said to herself as she picked up the radio and spoke to the liaison "Colonel Newman, there is no need to show off, I was demonstrating..."

The muzzle of the howitzer erupted with fiery ferocity, and the report caught everyone off guard; even Jennifer jumped when the cannon went off. "Newman… that was uncalled for." She sighed.

A splash about 200 feet tall went off about ten miles away, which plumed outward, and was visible even from the three Sea/Air Assault Ships, marines on the upper decks applauded and cheered at the display of firepower. "Hell yeah, how you like them apples Raymond? What are you now? You still a Lance corporal?"

"No sir, I've jumped a few ranks in the past year, I'm now a Master Gunnery Sergeant. Thanks for asking."

"That's my girl!" Newman's voice boomed through the speakers. "Id hate to hear how you got that high so fast." He laughed again "What'd ya do? A few sexual favors maybe?"

Raymond said nothing, and just loaded another shell into her rifle and aimed it at the water in front of the Dachshund, and fired another round, which splashed enough water to get Newman wet. "Does that answer your question.?"

"Not funny" Newman said, while the rest of his artillery group was in stitches over the matter.

Then a very enthusiastic voice from the third ship, CSAS Bulldog, boomed through the loudspeaker. "Well since people are firing off cannons, maybe the Army should go ahead and make a contribution… Fire one!." Then one of the tanks, A "Pepper" M-1A2MBT on the deck rotated it's turret out to sea.

"Boys will be boys…" Raymond said and sighed.

"The Pepper's cannon erupted in a smoky plume, and the barrel evacuator pushed out the rest of the smoke that was in the smoothbore 120mm cannon. The HEAT round struck the surface of the water, exploding in a tilted splash, which brought more cheers and whoops from the Marines, and from some of the Army crewmen on the deck of the Bulldog.

"Hey what's all the hoopla for? The show hasn't even started yet!" Gunners voice boomed through the loudspeaker, "Your signal to begin the attack will be three bright flashes, trust me, you'll see them." Gunner and Phalanx's Delta Wyvern flew by, leaving a sonic boom, followed closely by Blaze and Birdy, who broke formation and headed south, and then Kid and Koneko blew by, in between Gunner and Blaze.

"Alright cobalt, we are to attack no faster than five minutes between strikes, otherwise we risk being blown away by our own bombs, first Gunner, then Blaze, and lastly myself… Am I clear?" Kid said into the comms.

"Yes sir" Gunner replied, and sped off in the direction of his target.

"Alright, we'll hang back until wee see his flash." Birdy replied.

"Lastly, Don't look at the blast! It will blind you!" Koneko warned the others.

"Understood Cobalt two…" Phalanx relied, followed by Blaze's reply of "Yeah whatever."

Gunner had dropped altitude to under 500 feet, and sped passed the coastline at Mach 3, enemy soldiers on the beach head turned their heads as the fighter flew by insanely low and fast. "Damn, there's more enemies on the beach than we first thought, you see that Phalanx?"

"Yeah, I'm counting probably two legions of enemy tanks and probably a couple of infantry battalions, the ground forces are in for some hell." He sighed "Should we drop this nuke on the beach instead?"

"No we'll hold them, with your help of course." Jennifer's voice came through the comms.

Gunner's variable geometry wings were no longer in the forward swept configuration, but were folded in for supersonic flight. After a minute of flight the canyon was in sight range. "Okay Phalanx, We'll be flying approximately 100 feet from the deck once we reach the target area, when I give the signal, drop the bomb and then brace for the maneuver that I'm going to pull."

"Gotcha…" Phalanx replied as he eyed the radar screen.

As soon as the fighter got to the mountainous region, tracers from AA fire erupted from the gun towers and hillside emplacements on the canyon walls, but they flew under all of the hostile gunfire.

"This is checkpoint one, enemy aircraft has just blown past!"

"Checkpoint two here, what the hell was that!? Is that an enemy fighter!?"

"This is checkpoint three; something just blew past our defensive line!"

Checkpoint four here! Enemy aircraft just flew by less than treetop height overhead, They're fuckin' nuts!"

The commander at the installation was baffled; he looked down the canyon at the silver figure that sped toward the installation with a pair of binoculars. "Shit! Get the SAMs online; shoot that damn thing down NOW!"

Gunner eyed the installation and commanded "Bombs away!" the bomb doors on the fighter opened revealing the long bomb, which dropped from the fuselage, but caught lift and flew straight instead of dropping after Gunner pulled up.

"Sir! It's peeling off!" One of the observers watched the fighter as it climbed at lightning speed and flew over.

"Incoming!" Another observer had seen the bomb, and dropped to the deck.

"What!?" The base commander spoke his last as the bomb drove into the control tower, killing him and the observers. An explosion of concrete and electrical equipment came from the other side of the control tower as the bomb continued like a bullet until it detonated over the center of the base.

"Holy Shit!" Gunner said as the light brightened behind him, for he didn't put his visor down fast enough.

"Whoa…" Jennifer looked at the bright flash which was obscured by the plateau, and then the fireball which was four miles across appeared from the horizon, towering like a mountain over the coast. The marines in her group watched as the plume of red fire rose beyond the stratosphere, and then was donned in a white ice cap cloud in which the afterglow could still be seen through.

Twenty miles south of the blast Blaze already began his run, a mad dash for the mesa, "Alright Birdy… I want to plant this bomb into that cliff face."

"I get ya…" She armed the weapon and prepared to fire.

A slew of SAMs opened fire onto the incoming fighter, but the combination of radar absorbing material and chaff countermeasures made the SAMs useless.

"Evacuate, everyone Scramble!" The order from the base commanders at both of the bases sounded off from the loudspeaker, but it was too late at the Mesa. As the order was shouted Blaze had flown by and the bomb had already been driven into the cliff face, which continued until it got lodged inside the bunker. Soldiers were already checking the weapon when someone realized the noise it began to make, a faint sound of a charging laser capacitor.

"It's gonna blow…" he said, knowing that running would be futile.

The bomb detonated inside the mesa, which exploded into a flurry of dirt and rock before becoming an obscured fireball that was almost as bright as Solar.

Blaze flipped down his sun visor as the sky behind him brightened. "Target has been destroyed, no BDA necessary, but, it fizzled."

The marines had to look away as the coastline slowly brightened, but dimmed shortly thereafter. A huge, dirty brown mushroom cloud rose into the sky, its red afterglow gave it a fear instilling look, and the cloud of debris at the base of it made it even more chilling.

"My turn now…" Kid said to himself as he sped to the target area, and then he noticed three objects on his radar. "Enemy fighters… to hell with this. Fox Three, Fox Three!" He opened up the concussion missile bays and fired off three of them, two of the fighters broke formation and dodged the missiles but the leader wasn't so lucky, his fighter was reduced to a ball of fire as the missile struck it head on. "Splash one bandit."

"Shit, Ural 1 is down!" one of the fighters said before he was surprised by a spray of tracers from Gunner, "Damn! Two of them?!"

"No there's three of them!" The third fighter was already being chased down by Blaze.

"We've got these two" Gunner said as he strafed one of the enemies with a burst of cannon fire.

"We'll hold them off, focus on your target." Blaze told kid as he fired a missile at one of the enemy fighters.

Not even a minute after Kid left the engagement the two bandits disappeared from radar. "That was fast."

Kid and Koneko continued toward the base, strangely there was no suppressive fire, no SAMs or AAA. "Something isn't right." He kept flying toward the installation and commanded "Arm the Helios". Then the sky erupted into a flurry of black clouds. "Shit! Flak feild!" He dove for the deck.

"I don't care how small that plane is Shoot it down!" The commander of the enemy's Anti Aircraft Artillery brigade commanded his troops, whom sustained firing at the small fighter that was Kid's Delta Wyvern.

"Sir it's too small, we can't hit that!" one of the gunners said, and then one of them yelled "Get down!"

"Fox one!" Kid launched an air to ground missile at the command post, blowing it apart and fragging some of the nearby Flak crews, which silenced the Ack-Ack fire.

"Now that that's out of the way," He sped at the HQ bunker at the center of the installation. "Pickle!"

"Y-yes…" she pulled the trigger on the bomb release, and then braced for the high Gs from the maneuver.

Kid's fighter did an Immelman turn and sped off back for the coast. "Koneko, are you ok back there?"

"Yeah… just a little dizzy… I'll be fine." She flipped down her dark visor.

"Good… you were awfully quiet." He flipped down his visor as the sky brightened with the brilliance on Solar then dimmed. "Wait, what the?" Kid looked at the ball of red plasma which was dim enough to look straight at for a second. "That's incredible!" then it began to brighten again. _Whoa kid, look away!_

The marines looked at the dimmed fireball which was still growing, then slowly it began to brighten again, and as every second passed it became only brighter. "Shit! look away!" one of them yelled as the flash became unbearable, it soon shown with the brilliance of ten thousand stars.

"That's our cue!" The assault ships began to make a mad dash for the coast, the fireball still rising over the horizon, now taller than Corneria's tallest mountain, capped with thee ice cap clouds and three condensation rings around the immense mushroom shaped fireball, and the debris cloud at the base extended over an area of about ten miles

"Cobalt squadron, this is Crossroads Abel, begin joint effort with Blackjack because we will need the support. Gunner said that when he flew over the coast that the positions were deeply dug in." Jennifer radioed Kid.

"Hmph, so much for an easy victory." kid said darkly.

"Shit man, we saw that all the way from the Orihalcum!" Jose said through the radio as he flew over the assault ships. "Well anyway just tell me where to drop my bombs, I'm here for you guys, Jackal out."

"Furball here, just point and I'll shoot." Nick said through the comms.

" 'sup bitches!" Tucker said. "Why didn't you invite us to the fireworks?" He looked at the nuclear fireball, which still glowed red and was still rising, and then at the other two mushroom clouds, which were dissipating. "Looks like it was one hell of a show!"

Fox the reported in, "McCloud here, what's up with this? Starting the party without me?" He laughed

"First order of business." Captain Newman of Trinity radioed Fox. "Silence those gun emplacements!" An explosion went off near the Dachshund.

"Gotcha…" Fox sped toward one of the five shore cannons. "Blackjack, lets kill out some Veldts"

"Understood!" they all replied as they went for different emplacements, and the ASM bays opened, revealing long range air to ground missiles.

"Don't let those ships get to shore! Blast them before they get out of the water!" One of the cannon commanders said.

"Alright, rotate 30 degrees to port, azimuth 10 degrees down. Ready and… huh?"

"Eat this!" An AGM from Fox's fighter tore into the cannon's bunker and exploded, killing everyone inside, and then cannon's ammunition magazine ignited, causing a much more powerful secondary explosion, which sent pieces of concrete into nearby enemy tanks. "Position silenced."

The second shore cannon was erased after Jose fired a missile quite literally down it's barrel causing an instantaneous massive blast in the ammunition magazine.

The Marines and Army tank crews on the ships had brought their hardware below deck and the ships began to rise out of the water.

Not soon after, two more of the cannons were silenced leaving only one, which was guarded from air attacks by the hillside that it was placed in. "Fire Now!" the commander yelled and the crew responded by shooting the 30cm shell at the Lynx.

The 30cm shell just missed the Lynx as it rose from the water and exploded behind it, and the three ships sped toward the coast using jet propulsion.

"Stop them!" Tanks opened fire on the ships, their HEAT rounds exploded on the surface of the armor, doing almost nothing, and sabots merely stuck in the thick armor like needles. Then the shore gun fired as the Bulldog reached the shore.

"Damn it!" the commander of Crossroads Baker said as the bulldog suffered a crippling hit, which forced it to belly land onto the beach. Bulldog skidded across the sand for about two miles tearing through an enemy tank column and infantry group before halting in the desert behind the enemy defense line. The doors opened letting the tank battalion out one by one able to either destroy or stop enemy tanks before they could turn their turrets. "Well… maybe this worked out better than I thought" he said and then radioed T-bone "This is Captain Richard Wolfe of Crossroads Baker, near the Bulldog is a line of enemy tanks, can you wipe out that line for me?"

"Already on it" Tucker was coming for a pass. "Submunitions away!" His fighter dropped a canister bomb which flew over the line of dropping bomblets as it flew across a 300 yard long 50 yard wide column, enemy tank commanders found themselves in a rain of hell as the bomblets pummeled their tanks into submission.

"Thanks you guys." The commander said and then diverted his attention to his gunner. "Corporal Jones, Fire a HEAT round into that bunker."

"Yes sir… Fire- Two!" The muzzle erupted as it did before, and this time at a real target, the explosive shell flew through the large pillbox window and with a stroke of luck, slammed straight into the ammunition stockpile. Army tank crews cheered as the cannon and the whole hillside exploded and crumbled.

"Alright grunts, lets kick some ass!" The Army tank column spread out across the desert, taking potshots at the enemy tanks, and diverting the attention from the two other landing ships.

The two air support squadrons flew over the battlefield, strafing enemy infantry with cannonfire as the other two ships let off their combatant groups onto the beach.

The first operation in the Veldtian war had officially begun.

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A/N: Woo, most of this was written in one sitting. I hope you like large scale battles because we're just getting started.


	12. Chapter 10: part 2 Fallout

Disclaimer: Starfox is copyright to Nintendo… and governments belong to their respected founders… not me, I just use them… only my original characters, countries, etc. belong to me.

A/N: I do believe it is time to get Fox into the action, after all, he isn't really Fox unless he's fighting.

FYI: Damarus and his minions do not rely on guns, for obvious reasons… not to mention, their knowledge of the dark arts gives them an immunity to long ranged weapons like rifles and pistols, the only weapons that are effective against his minions are any form of short ranged weapon, this includes shotguns, staffs , swords, etc..

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Chapter Ten: Operation: Black Raven part 2 Fallout

--- Vedltia, undisclosed location.---

Krystal awoke to an eerie feeling, she was in a grandly decorated, but dimly lit shrine. "What is this?" she asked, no answer… After a few moments of regaining her equanimity, she stood, but almost fainted again from a fast onset of vertigo. _What's wrong with me?_ She shook her head, and stood again.

"Good evening Krystal" A low tone echoed in the hall, Krystal's ears perked up, trying to find out where the noise came from.

"Who are you?" she asked, then a cold chill filled the room.

"Maybe I'm a figment of your imagination." The voice came from the ceiling "Or, perhaps a close friend…" it came from a wall this time.

"Stop, I get your… Ah!" She felt cold steel against her neck.

"Or, maybe… I'm your worst enemy…" A teenage male vulpine, donned with runes, and dark red fur seemed to materialize behind her. "Now… lets see what your insides look like." He jerked his arm to the side, but took great care not to slice her, but he felt his arm wrench violently, and the sound of multiple joist dislocating and ligaments tearing filled the air, it happened so fast that it took a few seconds for the pain to register.

In an instant; Krystal had snatched the weapon, and twisted her antagonist's arm a solid 540 degrees, before the young fiend could yell in pain she said in a dark tone. "Don't ever touch me…"

"Guh… uh! aaaaaaaAAAGH!" The vulpine fell to his knees in agony, and he tried desperately to free himself from her grasp. "Let me go!" he screamed, whilst attempting to escape her death grip.

"Fine." She said heartlessly, and in a move just as quick as the last, she swiped the blade across the shoulder of her captive.

The unfortunate creature only screamed louder as his arm was severed from his body, and his free hand quickly grabbed hold of the bleeding stump. The poor anthro then fell to the floor, hyperventilating and crying. "I-I wasn't going to hurt you!" He cried. "I was just…" she hushed him.

Krystal leaned closer to him, the shadow hid her expression. "Don't worry, it won't hurt for long." She said softly as she ran the back of her right paw down the side of his face, the same paw that still held the bloody blade.

"R-really?" He sniffed.

"Trust me…" She tiled her head up a bit to let the light fall on her face, which was twisted into a malevolent smile.

"No Don-kkk" his words turned to a gargle, and stream of blood spewed form his throat, and quickly his body began to convulse violently as the blade cut through his spine, severing his head.

Krystal stood and smiled, tossing the blade aside and watching the decapitated anthro's body twitch, and then in an instant a screeching pain overwhelmed her, she fell forward, catching herself with her paws, which had planted into the growing pool of blood.

"What just…" Krystal shook her head, and then noticed the warm feeling on her paws. When her vision returned she screamed, and quickly scrambled away from the dismembered corpse. "What the hell is going on!?" she screamed.

"So you don't even know." Falco said as he entered the room, in his hands was some sort of restraint.

"Know what?" She said, the shock evident in her voice.

_Interesting… she really doesn't know. _He looked at her sternly "You killed him."

Krystal answered in disbelief "What!?" she backed away from him as he walked toward her. "I did no such thing!"

"Forget it… anyway you're coming with me." He grabbed her and wrenched her violently against the wall, placed the restraints on her before she could even object.

"Where!? Where are you taking me!?" She turned and screamed.

"To see Fox." Falco smirked. "You first, you murderous bitch." He said harshly as he threw her through the doorway.

---Zeram Beach, near the Bulldog crash site.---

The battle had only raged for minutes, and the Crossroads Baker battalion had already gained the upper hand. Enemy tanks fell to their onslaught left and right, some either disabled by Sabots or completely destroyed by the combination of a HEAT round, and the volatile materials inside.

"Shit, were outgunned by a longshot! Our cannons aren't nearly as powerful as the Cornerian's weaponry, and we can't get a bead on their fighters, they're just too fast!" The enemy brigade commander spouted to his higher brass VIA sat-com. "Damn, one of them is heading this way!"

"Goodnight buddy." Fox quickly got into position for a strafing run, but then he noticed that there was no AAA. _Heh… Let's have a little fun._ He flew overhead of the enemy column and switched the thrusters to VTOL, and hovered.

"What is he!?" The commander's question was answered before he even could finish as Fox began to jink sideways, and began firing off his vulcans in calculated bursts at the tanks. Tracers and Sabots hit the armor and shredded it like it was merely paper. "Retreat!" His brigade began to move away from Fox's deadly and accurate barrage.

"That's what I'm talking about!" He tilted the engines forward slightly, causing the fighter to lurch forward slowly, he raised the pitch to fire at escaping vehicles.

Fox's seemingly inescapable barrage wasn't the only thing that was hitting the tank column, sabots from the Baker battalion were hitting the tanks in their treads, immobilizing them, allowing Fox to easily finish them off with a burst of 20mm cannon fire.

"Heh, looks like we made it" The last tank kept going, now out of range of the Cornerian tanks, and Fox's vulcans.

"You aren't getting away!" Fox switched to his LASM and waited for a solid lock on the tank. "See you in hell…" with that, he depressed the thumb button on the control stick, and a long range air to surface missile dropped from the fuselage, its rocket assist roared to life, causing the warhead to accelerate toward the escaping target.

A warning buzzer sounded in the vehicle, and the commander, now surprised, shouted "What the hell!?"

His tank was hit by a heavy shock, and the back wall of the turret turned fluorescent orange. Sparks began to fly from the wall as the crew watched.

"Oh god no…" The gunner said, and then a stream of molten lead shot into the gunner's compartment, killing him and the commander. The driver however, found himself burned severely from the metal, but even he didn't live long. Though the explosive warhead had detonated outside of the tank, the ammunition inside caused the tank to became a bomb in itself.

The vehicle exploded into a slew of shrapnel and debris, and the turret was launched high into the air. "Damn this is awesome." Fox said to himself.

"Thanks for the assist McCloud, you put up a helluva show!" Wolfe radioed Fox, a huff of enthusiasm in his voice.

"Roger…" Fox turned tail and flew off toward the Lynx and Dachshund, eager for more fighting. _C'mon, I want a dogfight! Not just pound the ground all day._ He thought to himself as he flew to the other ground assault.

Captain Wolfe poked his head out of the tank's hatch, and scanned the area for enemy forces, he saw nothing but disabled tanks, and soldiers rallying a few enemy prisoners… "Looks like the southern part of the beach is clear, but I can still hear gunfire to the north." He saw what looked like a snowflake land on his sleeve, but it stuck fast. "Wait a minute… is that?" He went below, and closed the hatch.

"This is Crossroads Baker, Charlie platoon leader, sir It's over 100 degrees out here and its snowing!" The commander of the third platoon radioed in, his position was a few clicks (kilometers) east of the Bulldog. "And the Geiger counter is going frikkin' crazy, its about 50 Rems per minute outside of the tank!"

_So the 'snow' is radioactive, and due to the level of radioactivity… an unprotected individual will only live for about… say, ten minutes… Shit!_ "That isn't snow! That's Fallout!" He poked his head back out of the hatch, brushed off the 'snowflake', and yelled to nearby soldiers "Get those prisoners into a shelter! This area's about to be deadlier than a bad case of anthrax!" and he quickly closed and sealed the hatch. "Alpha Platoon, Charlie Platoon, Rally back at the Bulldog, we need to get those hazard suits on!" _It looks like the northern part of the beach won't get any for a few more minutes._

"We'll warn the Marines…" Bravo platoon leader said "Platoon, head due north to the landing zones of Lynx and Dachshund! Its about to get deadly outside!" His tank lurched quickly, and in a few seconds reached a speed of 45mph.

---Zeram Beach, 25 clicks north of the Bulldog, 100 yards east of the Lynx---

The beach was a midday light show, tracers, vapor trails, explosions, you name it. Marines scrambled up the beachhead, trying their best to evade gunfire, blasterfire and tank shells. A marine using a horizon scanner was pinned behind a disabled tank "This is unit two, incoming fire from a hardened pillbox, the coordinates are, Grid Kilo 6, Alpha 40 Zulu 10, Requesting artillery support!"

Colonel Newman sat by the radio, and heard the message loud and clear. "Alright marines, we just got an order for fire in the 6th Kilo grid, A 40 Z 10, units one, five, and nine; fire at will!"

Three mobile artillery vehicles raised their guns to a high angle, turned their turrets slightly to starboard and opened fire. The thunderous booms echoed across the desert, and an enemy commander noticed the three smoke plumes from the cannons.

"Hit the dirt comrades!" the three low velocity shells struck the pillbox and surrounding area behind the commanders position, causing two tall, dusty explosions, and one loud fiery one. his troop was showered with bits and pieces of concrete, pieces of a tank, and a cloud of dust. "Goddamnit! Fire back, mow down those mothers!"

The Veldtain soldiers fired from behind cover, wounding many marines, and killing a few of them.

"Iron Hand, this is Hind, coordinates of enemy artillery are located two kilometers north of our current position, and about three kilometers west. Give those bloody bastards a taste of our… Veldtian hospitality…" An enemy artillery liaison reported to his artillery platoon, who responded by firing a barrage of MLRS rockets at the Cornerian cannons.

Colonel, enemy MLRS rocket trails have been reported, I'm reading five, no six rockets!" His executive officer told him.

Colonel Newman shouted a command without hesitation "Incoming, Hit the deck!" his command came just short of disaster, his unit took defensive positions as the rockets burst into multiple submunitions, showering the platoon with a crippling rain of anti armor bomblets, then two very large and loud explosions went off near the Dachshund. The dust cleared quickly and he regained his composure and turned to his XO (Exec. Officer) "Status report…"

"Well sir other than a broken terminal, cannons one, six, and four are disabled, and the ammunition magazines for units two and three have been hit.

"Well shit, we'll have to work with one gun for now." Colonel Newman shrugged and lit a pipe of tobacco, "Send those Veltian fuckers a taunt, show them that we aren't that easily stopped." He said and then took a drag from his pipe.

"Cannon five, firing" The fifth vehicle tilted its cannon, and opened fire. The shell soared through the air, with no set target in mind.

"This is Hind, looks like you missed one… wait a minute." He saw a black dot heading toward him, and began to hear the faint whistle of the shell "aww shit…"

The dune that the enemy liaison was stationed turned into an expanding cloud of dust, and the hapless soldier along with his survey equipment was sent flying in the air, and turned three flips in midair before striking the sand.

"I think we hit something sir."

"Oh well, guess it's my luck." Newman guffawed loudly and took another long drag from his pipe.

---three kilometers south of Dacshund---

"Frag out!" One marine pulled the pin on his grenade, cooked it and chunked it behind a sandbag barricade, Veldtian soldiers tried to move but weren't quick enough, they were pelted by hundreds of flechettes. And another barricade was blown to pieces by a payload round from a Marine's AM-90, which fragged the enemies whom were behind cover.

"Advance!" The commander of Bravo Company commanded his troops as they stormed the beach. "Kill anyone who tries to run!" With that, his company began laying waste to enemy positions, if a Veldtian poked his head out, it was sure to be blown off.

Many Veldtians tried running but fell prey to automatic fire, some were even wounded but Bravo Company's leader showed no mercy, prisoners were forcefully shot on sight, the wounded were murdered, if it was Veldtian, it was as good as dead.

One veldtian group was incapacitated by a frag grenade, and the command squad stayed behind, putting a bullet into the skull of each helpless soldier as they came to.

"Heheheheheh…. Wake up! I want you to beg for mercy!" He laughed as he put bullet after bullet into the vulnerable soldiers, most of whom didn't even have a chance.

The commander then felt a blunt impact as one of his subordinated struck him with the stock of his rifle. "Enough! They can't fight back for Christ's sake!"

He stood back up, and yelled at his Marine subordinate. "Striking an officer!?" He pulled his pistol on one of his own. "You'll get a court martial for this!"

"No!" The Marine swung his rifle like a bat, knocking the pistol from the hands of his commander. Another of his subordinates grabbed him.

"That's enough sir! Chill!" Another one of his subordinates rebelled. "They don't deserve this!"

"So all of you want a piece of the pie!? I'll have all of you shot for treachery you mother fu…" A gunshot rang out and the commander's brains were blasted from his skull, and he fell limp.

The wounded Veldtian commander dropped his weapon. "Thank you for helping my comrades…" he said, before falling into shock.

"Say What?" The Marines said in unison.

In another part of the battlefield, a marine commander was running past a pillbox when a Veldtian officer ran out of the doorway. "Freeze you son of a bitch!"

The officer then began shouting obscenities in his guttural native language, and hurled his helmet at the Cornerian commander, who in turn chucked his as well, then they both drew pistols and fired wildly at each other, shouting even more curses as the bullets struck flesh. Both of them collapsed from the repeated blows, and went into shock.

"Get a medic over here!" one marine shouted as he checked his commander.

After a minute of waiting another marine, dressed in a different uniform helped his comrade move the commander to a safe position.

Jose dropped a bomb onto a pillbox that was still garrisoned, and came around for a second attack when he looked to the east. "Hey guys, the weather is getting a little dangerous for flying. I see a bad storm about seven clicks to the east of my current position."

"Yeah, that storm is messing with the radios for some reason…" Birdy said. "Cobalt leader, permission to return to base?"

"This is cobalt lead, I'm Winchester (Out of ammo) so RTB at your own discretion."

"Cobalt squadron, this is the Orihalcum, we have positioned five clicks off the coast, just look and you'll see us."

"Understood, everyone, head for the Orihalcum… its getting pretty bad out here."

"Roger, this is Fox… Blackjack, drop the rest of your ordinance and RTB as soon as possible." Fox said as he spotted the MLRS artillery platoon. "Ive got some business to take care of."

"Understood sir. I'm Winchester, Blackjack, status." Jose said.

"Furball here, I've taken some small arms fire in the starboard engine, and I'm low on ammo"

"This is T-Bone, an enemy shoulder launched SAM fragged my left canard, I'm heading back as we speak."

"Roger that, see you on deck." Jackal said as he rolled to starboard and pitched to change bearing until he was headed for the Orihalcum.

Fox raised altitude and released a large canister bomb that was marked with a blue stripe. He turned around quickly and headed for a safe distance as the bomb reached its air burst altitude.

The canister burst open, and a greenish yellow cloud of fuel filled the air, then after a few seconds, the cloud ignited into a rapidly expanding and powerful thermobaric explosion, which turned the artillery group into smoldering heaps of twisted metal.

Fox spouted "That got 'em." and then began to survey the battlefield. "It won't be much longer." He said to himself.

"Thanks for silencing that artillery group, that'll relieve some of the heat on our forces.." Jennifer radioed him.

"No problem, I'm going to see what I can find… radio me if you need help." Fox said to Jennifer.

"I will."

---Zeram Desert, 5 clicks east of the beach---

Alpha Company had been sent behind the lines VIA dropships to stop enemy reinforcements.

"Alright, Alpha Platoon, follow me… Charlie, scout ahead for any enemy movements… Bravo platoon, defend these dropships." Jennifer commanded as soon as they dusted off.

Charlie Platoon of Alpha Company stormed a reinforcing Tank platoon, their sniper, armed with a XSR-120 Coilgun; had fired an aluminum slug through the lead tank which sucked all the air out of the crew compartment, and sent rivets inside the compartment flying erratically, killing every crew member.. "Alright guys, they're all yours!"

The other soldiers in the unit had readied their MAAWS, a multitude of clicks filled the air, and one by one, the launchers erupted into a frenzy of dumbfire missiles, each one with it's own target. But the sound of missiles were interrupted by the loud report of a 120mm glide cannon, and five Marines flew into the air after an enemy HEAT round exploded near their position, the afterglow and smoke trails of the molten lead from the HEAT round was evident on the marines who were hit by the blast.

The enemy tank wasn't lucky either, not long after he fired his cannon, a missile drove straight through its armor using a powerful shape charge explosive, and spewed molten lead and thermite inside the tank, not only killing the crew, but igniting the ammunition as well. That tank, as well as a few others, exploded in a fireball of debris and molten lead from their own HEAT rounds. Other enemy tanks were hit in the engines and or treads, and the crews escaped the burning wrecks.

"Oh no you don't." The sniper began firing slugs at the enemy escapees, a slew of vapor trails filled the air around the fleeing crewmen. Their heads exploded into a red mist of flesh, bone, and grey matter as the slugs struck them, making it a gruesome sight.

The crewman fell to the hypersonic slugs like ragdolls, their headless bodies strewn across the sand by slugs no bigger than a five inch piece of rebar, but were flying at half the speed of light. One of them was hid dead on in the back, ripping him in half and splattering his intestines and other viscera onto the desert sands.

"Heh… how do you like that!?" He fires a few more slugs, failing to notice that one of the tanks, unscathed from the fight, had its cannon pointed straight at him.

"Eat this… you Cornerian bastard." The gunner pulled the trigger on the turret controls.

The vapor trails stopped as the cannon opened fire, and the sniper's position became a cloud of blood as the depleted uranium sabot tore him to shreds.

"Heh… stupid little." His hatch was thrown open and a Marine, none other than Jennifer "What the?" she threw a concussion grenade into the tank, knocking out the crew.

"Don't mess with the best, bitch…" she jumped off of the tank, set the timer on a satchel charge, and ran after tossing it under the tank. _They deserve it…_ She made it to cover as the vehicle was turned into a smoky fireball and flying shrapnel, the dust cleared and the only thing that was recognizable was the broken treads and part of the hull. "Alright Marines, set your Claymores, another group of infantry are coming over the hill." She in turn set her own mine.

Her unit began to set small mines directed toward their front, and wired their detonators. As the first soldiers came over the dune they got behind cover.

"On my mark!" she yelled, holding her detonator in her paw. "Three… two…"

A platoon of heavily armored soldiers came over the dune "Kill them!" The enemy platoon leader yelled as they ran toward the dug in marines, but five of them lagged. They were about 50 yards away when the dune in front of them burst into a line of explosions, and he as well as his platoon fell prey to a deadly spray of metal pellets, which perforated their armor, and brought them to the sand.

"Advance!" Jennifer and her platoon of marines moved in, they had just cleared the smoke from the blasts when the saw the enemy anthros, some of whom were writhing on the sand, bleeding and crying in pain. "Hold it." One was still standing, but after a few seconds, staggered and fell face first into the sand. "Move in, we've got survivors!"

Jennifer's group moved in on the enemy platoon, most of them were dead, but the others who lagged behind were still alive. She walked nearby one of them, kneeled and turned him over, but then realized something, it was a very young female. _She can't be older than sixteen!_ She thought, looking at the wounded youth.

"H-help me!" hundreds of holes were in her armor, and her visor was cracked but unbroken. "I-it hurts!"

Jennifer cut off the female's armor, revealing the blood stained fur underneath, around ten small but painful wounds were in her torso, and another ten scattered on her arms and legs. "You'll be okay… they aren't deep."

"They… made us..." she coughed.

"Shh… don't talk, save your strength." Jennifer then ordered her unit. "Check them; help them if they're alive!"

Another marine was checking when another of the soldiers grabbed his leg "I don't want to die!" a very young voice came from the downed soldier.

"What the hell? They're still kids!" He yelled, and then turned to Jennifer. "What the fuck is this!?"

"Get a hold of yourself!" One of his fellow marines helped one of the survivors up. "They'll be okay as long as we get them to safety, now pick one of them up!"

"Alright… but this is just bullshit!" He picked up the wounded boy.

The sound of diesel turbines began to fill the air, a column of tanks were moving in on their position.

"Damnit! What now!" One marine yelled.

"Drop your weapons…" Jennifer said. "We can't risk it, there's no cover here and if we fire one rocket, it'll do no good.

The engines were getting closer, and one of the Marines began to lose it, when one of the Veldtians said something.

"That… isn't ours." The eldest of the five soldiers, whom was seventeen, said.

One of the tanks jumped the dune, and after it landed it quickly swiveled its turret, but then an order sounded off "Hold your fire! Hold your fire! They're friendly!"

The hatch opened, and the commander jumped out. "Hey! Marines!"

Jennifer took this as an opportunity to solicit help for transporting the wounded soldiers. "Can you take us back to the…" a snowflake fell at the feet of the wounded female. "What the?"

An APC jumped the dune and drove over to them. The gunner opened his hatch and yelled "Get in! There's no time!

--- Three minutes later ---

"Give me a status report" Jennifer commanded, after zipping up the hazard suit that she had been issued.

"Most of the prisoners and some of our own who couldn't get to cover have been rounded into pillboxes, one of the forward observing APCs reported that the fallout will only last a minute, but you are not to leave shelter until it settles." The Operations officer reported.

"So is everyone accounted for?" she asked Ops.

"No, mam… there is still one combatant unaccounted for, Blackjack leader, Fox McCloud." He said.

_Great… if he is gonna be this reckless he's gonna get himself killed._

Fox was now flying over the Crater of Castle Bravo, a monstrous smoldering crater that was four miles across surrounded by a black scorch that stretches ten miles from ground zero. The main plume was gone and besides the windblown smoke the sky was clear, creating an eerie sense of tranquility.

Fox was over the crater because he had seen an unidentified aircraft during his flight, and followed it through the fallout plume to the crater.

"It's frightening isn't it?"

Fox heard the transmission, but he was quickly at a loss of words.

"Yet, so peaceful… a fitting grave for the great Fox McCloud." A black hulled fighter flew around Fox's delta wyvern. "Wouldn't you agree, Buddy?"

Fox's videoscreen flashed to life, revealing the scarred face of an Avian whom he knew well. "You, You should be…"

"Dead? Don't make me laugh!"

A warning for a missile lock sounded in Fox's helmet. "Shit!" He banked hard right, and just as he did the smoke trail of a missile flew passed him. _What the hell are you doing Falco!?_

"So, you' haven't lost your touch!" Falco laughed "This is gonna be awesome."

The two fighters were quickly chasing each other; it seemed as if it would be a fight to the death, even ejecting meant death by the immense amount of radiation from the crater below.

"Come on Fox!" Falco was steadily chasing him; he knew that at any time Fox could easily overtake his dated fighter which relied on the combustion of liquid fuel, and was armed with weapons from years past. "Why don't you fight back!?"

"I will not kill a friend." Fox kept jinking, and evading missile locks.

"Fox… I am not your friend…" He then switched to vulcans and unleashed a flurry of tracers and incendiary rounds, which had a much slower muzzle velocity than the more advanced sabots. However, four of his shots met fuselage, and Fox was quickly trailing smoke from the thermite infused cannon rounds, which were meant to be used against liquid fuel bearing fighters.

_Damn, I'm already hit… if this keeps up, I will have to fight back just to survive. _Fox then quickly pulled off an Immelman loop maneuver and lined up with the tail of the Dark Omen. "Fine, you want a fight…" His arm began to throb under the strain, and his voice showed it. "Then you have one…" With that, he fired his own volley of cannonfire, a stream of sabots wounded the Dark Omen's starboard side engine, causing it to lose power, He was going to fire another stream this time with the intent to kill when a scream came through the comms.

"Don't do it Fox!"

"What?" It didn't take long for him to recognize the voice, it was Krystal. "Krystal!?"

She had been tied up and secured to the second seat of the Dark Omen.

"So what does the great McCloud do now? If you shoot me down, she dies, but if you don't shoot me down… you die. If she even ejects she dies a very slow, horrible death. Take your pick!" Falco bluffed, he knew that he only had five minutes of time to fight before he had to return to base, his fuel tank was only half full.

_Goddamn it… I'll just have to see if I can stall him._

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A/N: Sorry about the hiatus, but I was at a loss of what to write for the time being.


	13. Chapter 11: Turncoat

Disclaimer: Starfox is copyright to Nintendo… and governments belong to their respected founders… not me, I just use them… only my original characters, countries, etc. belong to me.

A/N: Damn, it's been over a month since my last post. I need to go deeper into some of my original characters, so that they aren't just there… they need personalities and I don't think I'm doing a good job of portraying that. Also, I failed to mention the full name of Johannes' son, Alexander Khrushchev.

FYI: About the radiation and Tanks… Tanks since the dawn of the cold war have a layer of shielding against radioactive agents and filters that remove harmful particulates from the air, which include but are not limited to, fallout, chemical weapons, biological agents, and dust. The M-1A1 Abrams MBT is the base that I used for the Cornerian Tanks in terms of armament and specs, as I used the Russian T-80 as the base for the Veldtian tanks. Both of which are able to be used in a nuclear battlefield… Speaking of which, there is actually many forms of tactical nukes (Yeild: 1 kt or less), tank shells, land mines (only a handful of these were made. Yeild estimate was 5kt and each one weighed a good thousand pounds), air to air missiles, air to ground missiles, you name it, and so they build the tanks and APCs to withstand such harsh conditions. APC's are even more protected for obvious reasons, the people inside.

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Chapter Eleven: Turncoat

Fox had found himself in the worst possible situation, a wingmate being held captive by a traitor… if he shot down Falco, Krystal wouldn't have a snowball's chance, exposure to the outside air would surly be lethal.

However, the death would not be a quick one… in a matter of either hours or days, the effects of particle radiation at the lethal dose would rework the genetic code of every cell, randomly rearranging the genes of the victim randomly, and in turn cause the body to reject itself… the victim undergoes keloidosis, a severely disfiguring condition where tumors called keloids form on the skin and internal organs, soon after, the kidneys shut down, the liver ceases to function, the body then begins to bloat from water retention, and then, after what may seem like an eternity of agony the victim dies, drowning in his/her own body fluids.

"Well Fox, it's your choice, one of us has to go… just which one." Falco bluffed, Fox didn't answer.

"Falco, why do you want to do something this underhanded, why don't you fight him on even terms." Krystal said, her voice trembling.

"I could always eject you… Would you like that?"

"No… that would be suicide." She murmured.

"Then shut your fucking maw, before I do send you flying." Falco threatened, "Hey Fox, had enough time to think it over?"

Still no answer, but then Fox's Delta Wyvern rolled and pitched pointing its nose directly at Falco. "Come and get me!" He fired a volley of Vulcan fire, intentionally missing the Dark Omen and flew by at mach two.

"It's about fucking time!" Falco quickly maneuvered to give chase.

"Yeah, just follow me…" Fox said to himself.

The two fighters weaved about while flying toward a small conglomeration of scorched mesas, tracers could be seen flying from the Dark Omen as Falco tried to nail Fox, but the seasoned pilot shook him. "Even after all this time, you still can't keep up."

Falco punched a few buttons on his panel, and brought up the ASTRAAM console, and punched in the command to arm an undetectable missile. "Stay still!" he yelled into the radio as he tried to get a solid radar lock, for minutes he weaved about until he finally heard that tone that every pilot loves to hear before his enemy is reduced to a smoking ball of fire and debris. "It's been nice knowing you Fox." He said too himself as he pressed the button on the stick.

Krystal eyed the missile which was mounted on the wing of the fighter, and watched as it detached and fell from the wing. _No!_ The missile then shot off ahead of them. "Fox! Break!"

Just as the missile was about to hit, he had reached the mesa, and quickly turned, a sigh of relief left him as the missile smashed into the scorched rock. "Good try Falco… but you'll have to do better than that." His voice was strained, during that last hard turn he had strained his healing arm.

"One more word… just one more word and you'll be a red stain on the cliff face!" Falco yelled at Krystal, hands on the eject and flying with the canopy facing the cliff wall of the mesa. "Got it!?"

_Fuck you…_she thought, but fearing for her life, she kept her mouth shut.

"Not a good idea Falco… the moment she flies, you're dead." Fox threatened. "Only a fool would silence their ace in the hole."

"Hmph…" Falco then resorted to vulcans, pulling off burst shots, which instead of going into the fuselage of the Wyvern; chipped the cliff faces.

"Warning… Port side gravity diffuser drive temperature reaching dangerous levels, fusion runaway of reactor imminent." An automated message from the Wyvern's A.I. reported. "Beginning G-diffuser jettison… reach safe distance within ten seconds."

After the message, the top and underside plates of the engine casing on the Wyvern were blown off by small shape charges, then the engine and its shimmering red reactor fell, causing the fighter to lurch violently to port as Fox's aircraft was now underpowered. "Shit… that can't be good…"

"What the hell are you doing!?" Falco; oblivious to what exactly is going on ended up shooting ahead of Fox's underpowered craft.

Once again the sky was brightened by a piercing light; however the blast wasn't nearly as powerful as the Helios bombs.

"Damn it…" Fox had shielded his eyes a little late.

"What the hell are you thinking!?" Falco was about to turn when the fuel warning on his fighter went off "Tch… We'll finish this later McCloud."

"Hey get back here!" He yelled, but Falco was already bugging out. "Fuck it…" he said to himself as he turned the fighter around and flew westward.

--- Lynx, Zeram beach, time: 0700 hours --- about an hour after Fox and Falco's little chase.

"Hey I see something!" one of the observers on the Lynx spotted Fox's wounded fighter, the captain then reached for the radio, and dialed in the frequency.

"This is Lynx, confirm your station…"

"This is Blackjack leader… request permission to use your V/STOL deck for emergency landing… you may want to bring up the net."

"Permission granted, we'll roll out the mat." He changed frequencies. "Incoming, get the net up **now**!"

Deck crews scrambled across the deck to emergency positions which had been sprayed with a mixture of water and radiation neutralizing agent; two posts came from the V/STOL deck which hoisted up a large net made of rubber coated steel cables. "Net is up sir!"

A few seconds after the net was raised Fox's fighter landed roughly, the port side gear buckled and failed, causing the fighter to go into an uncontrolled skid across the wet deck. "Ahh hell!" the landing caused Fox to strike the canopy hard, cracking it and his helmet. Soon the damaged craft halted a few meters short of the safety net.

"Hurry, get those fires out! And get Mr. McCloud clear of the Delta Wyvern!" The captain commanded, but the crew was way ahead of him, extinguishing the fires, and while everyone else was busy trying to cool down the overheating G-diffuser, Raymond had made her way to the cockpit of the fighter.

She knocked on the glass. And Fox responded by opening the cockpit. "you ok Fox?"

"Yeah I'm fiaaaa…." He fell unconscious before he could even finish.

"Concussion… sigh get a medic over here." She sighed.

--- Lynx; infirmary--- 1030 hours

The female Veldtan youth was lying on a bed and connected to an I.V., she still had trouble breathing and still couldn't focus completely. The other youth's didn't make it, during the long ride back to the Lynx the three youngest died after their lungs collapsed, and the second oldest took a cyanide pill to keep from divulging information.

"Hello…" Jennifer poked her head in, and the white catgirl glanced over and tried to respond but Jennifer hushed her.

"Save your strength and rest, you've been through hell." She patted her on the head. "I know… I know exactly what you've gone through."

"R-really?" she asked weakly.

"I can't really remember as much… but yes, it does explain my seniority at such a young age." She said "I'm not much older than you."

"oh…" the girl looked down.

"Fem- number sixty two… so that's what they call you… shame that they rely on numbers now…"

"My, mother called me… Mika…" she said "That is… before they killed her…"

Jennifer fell silent for a few moments; then she said darkly "Do you remember the name of the program?"

"Not really… why?" She asked.

Jennifer then held up her dogtags, Zakatan dogtags "I have something that I need to know."

"I understand"

"The names of all of the male donors… Lupine males."

"There were many donors… but only one wolf…"

"Who was he?"

Jennifer had rushed out of the medical compartment, a mixture of confusion and rage was evident on her face… she stomped down the passageway in the direction that led past the compartment that Fox was in.

Before she got there, his door opened, and he, stubborn as hell, forced the medical officer to let him go. "Just leave me alone! I'll be fine!" he said aloud, then he noticed Jennifer. "Hey, what's wrong?"

"Shut up…" She said coldly as she walked past him.

_Damn… whats got her so ticked off?_ He thought.

--- Southeast Veldtia; Fenrir arms building number 23; WOLFEN industrial unit --- 1036 hours

Michael Asher sat at his desk, which had been hit by a few rounds during the prior assault. He was typing up an E-mail, one addressed to CJCSRufusCorNet.mil.

_General Rufus Pepper_

_Sir, the Socialist Republic of Veldtia has gotten the message, however, they will not back down… I recommend that you mobilize your squadron again, within the next 24 hours, and also, ask the President to evacuate Port Allen and the surrounding areas…_

_I'm afraid that Port Allen may become a ghost city soon…_

_Cipher_

He pressed send, and then felt a cold barrel against the back of his head.

"Whatcha up to?" Wolf was pressing his blaster against Michael. "Stand up, paws where I can see them."

"Hmph…" Seeing as he didn't have much choice he stood, and turned around.

"So is Mike your name? Or is it Cipher?" Wolf asked menacingly, blaster trained on Michael's face.

"Cipher is a callsign, O'Donnell." He said, glancing back and forth between the blaster to Wolf's face. "something that you haven't heard of probably, unless you were foolish to think that a fur would have a name like Lancer, or Boomer." He quickly kicked the blaster from Wolf, and grabbed him by the hands, and twisted his arms; causing Wolf to wince in pain.

"I always wondered who the informant was, I guess I owe you one in a way, seeing as I would be a pile of ash if you hadn't warned the Cornerian brass."

"Still, you know who I am, and I am forced to kill you where you stand…" He let go of Wolf, kicked him, and got behind him quick enough to put him into a sleeper hold. "But seeing as we go back so far, I won't kill you."

"Hmph… you won't get away…" Wolf taunted.

"I just did…" He tightened his grip on Wolf.

After a few seconds, Wolf started to kick, and throttle himself in an attempt to get loose from Michael's grip, but it was getting him nowhere, Michael was quite strong. "You… son of a… I'll…. Kill… you!"

"Shut up O'Donnell…" He said.

Michael held on for a few more seconds, then he set Wolf down after he lost consciousness, his eye rolled back. "See you later… Buddy." He said as he walked out of the office, then he had a thought. "Can't let them get that shit." He walked back in, grabbed his laptop and a few flash drives which contained plans for a new fighter design, and some other systems related to the project. Then he pulled out his FMP-9 a 4.6x30mm SMG, pointed it at his computer terminal and held the trigger. The hangar filled with the report of full-automatic fire as he put around thirty rounds into his remaining hardware, rendering it useless. He then turned back around and headed down the catwalk stairs, and walked toward Wolf's WOLFEN3, he opened the engine cases, dropped the G-diffusers and disconnected them to stall Wolf. After he tampered with the fighter, he turned to his own F/A-WOLFEN3 which was under a blue tarp. "Well… I hope the paint gets their attention." He sighed and pulled back the tarp, revealing his fighter which had just recently been repainted to the Cornerian scheme of tan with green wingtips. He climbed into the cockpit and closed the canopy, hit the reactor primers which brought power to the aircraft's systems, and then flipped the engine switches. "I guess it's now or never." The G-diffusers filled the hangar with a deafening roar.

Michael was about to release the gearbrakes when he heard someone tapping on his canopy, he looked to see who it was, and tuned down the throttle. He opened the canopy.

"Sir, what's going on?" The young cobra Alexander asked him.

"It isn't safe here anymore, Wolf just found out about our connection to the Cornerian brass, He doesn't know about you but I'm not willing to take any chances."

"Crap… You go on ahead, I'll follow you in my fighter…"

"Alex, It'd be wise for you to hurry up then… See you at Zeram." He closed the canopy and signaled Alex to back away.

As Michael's WOLFEN began to Taxi, Alexander had quickly began a pre-flight check on his fighter, a Vukhoi Vu-37 "Drakhen" which was registered to Alexander "Kaiser" Khrushchev, an upgraded version of the Vu-35 "Super Falkhen" that the Veldtian Air Force uses.

The sound of the two twin engine fighters had aroused Wolf from his daze, and he quickly got up and looked out toward the two fighters as they were taxiing out of the hangar. _He has an accomplice!?_ He thought; then he eyed the CIWS controls. "Too easy."

"You okay back there Alex?"

"Yes sir" he looked around, and noticed someone at the operating the CWIS console. "Wait, someone is messing with the IFF on the CIWS."

A warning light in both fighters went off as he said it, and the CIWS shot to life. "Ahh shit, we got a radar lock!"

"Calm down, I'll take care of it." The missile bay on the WOLFEN opened, and he shot off a missile with no set target. Instantly the warning stopped.

"A CIWS goes after the fastest moving objects first, Alex. Calm down." He aimed the nose of his craft at the turret, which had started firing at the dumbfired missile. Right as the missile was shot down, the CIWS began to pivot toward them.

"Not today." He pulled the trigger for his vulcans, putting off a one second long burst of 100 rounds into the turret, rendering it useless. "You first Alexander"

"Roger…" He taxied ahead, onto the runway. "I don't see any foreign objects on the runway, so I'm taking off." He moved his stick around, testing the control surfaces for any problems. When he saw that the surfaces were in good shape and responding well, he hit the afterburners and let off the gearbrakes. A few seconds after Alex took off Michael was already rolling down the runway.

Wolf cursed as he ran from the CIWS control panel, dashing toward his own WOLFEN. Before he reached it he saw that the engines had been dropped. "**Goddamn you Asher!**" he yelled aloud, rousing the attention of a few mechanics, who were also part of Asher's rebellion, but to look inconspicuous they rushed to Wolf's aid.

"Sir what's going on?" one of them asked, but instead of a worded answer he received a blaster bolt to his abdomen. He hit the ground in pain and squirming, but no blood left his cauterized wound.

"You let him get away…" Wolf said calmly, and then he turned to the rest of them and asked. "How long will it take to reconnect the G-Diffusers?"

The lead mechanic hesitated, but mustered up the will to answer. "About thirty minutes, Sir. We'll get right on it." He signaled the rest of them to get to work. "What about him?" he pointed at the wounded worker.

"What about him?" Wolf said, then he pointed the blaster at the wounded worker, and repeatedly pulled the trigger. "He would be a liability if we let him live." Wolf then turned and walked away and waving his hand, saying "Clean this mess up would you?"

--- Zeram Desert. --- 1145 hours

"Kaiser, You ok up there?" Michael radioed Alex as Castle Crater was on the horizon. "Your plane is wobbling a bit."

"Yes comrade, I'm just, nervous…" He tipped his wing in reply. "Three years ago, I never would have thought that I would be defecting from my home country… The air base that the crater up ahead was… I was actually stationed there."

"I see… Well, around that time…" A warning signal sounded off on his instrument panel. "Shit, looks like we've been followed."

Six MiL-34 Falchion's had closed in from the east, the lead pilot opened up a channel to Michael "Comrade Asher! Looks like the Premier's suspicions were correct!"

_The premier knew!?_ Alexander thought.

"Yeah, and?" Michael spouted… "Kaiser, on my signal, I want you to bank hard to port and release countermeasures. Were gonna take 'em."

"Understood."

"I've got tone, Kurtz 1… Fox 2!" the lead fighter launched two heat seeking air-to-air missiles.

"Fox 2 Fox 2!" All of the others followed suit, launching two missiles a piece.

"Break now!"

The two defectors banked across each other, and released flares. Fooling the missiles and causing them to detonate in mid air trying to destroy fake targets. After a few seconds of turning; the two defectors had lined up with their attackers.

"Kurtz! Engage!" Kurtz group broke formation, three fighters per defector.

"Hmph… Fox 3." Michael had fired a radar guided missile for the lead fighter; who immediately left the radar cone, causing the missile to acquire his second in command; whom screamed as before her fighter slammed into the missile.

A fiery explosion went off just behind the cockpit as the missile went straight down the intake and detonated, causing her fighter to spin out of control. "D..mit! I ca.….ontro…it!"

"Eject Kurtz 2… It takes time to accept that you've lost." The lead plane commanded. No response. "Dammit Eject!"

Just after his second command a white explosion of steam and smoke appeared on the cockpit and a small black dot was catapulted from the burning wreck, soon after the wreck was ripped apart.

_Ah good, she made it._ He thought as he saw her touch down, and cut her chute loose. Then a missile alert tone got his attention, but it was too late. "**Shit!**" He was knocked unconscious as the missile bludgeoned his fighter broadside, ripping it in half. After a few seconds of spinning the fuel tank and ammunition magazine had combusted, ripping the fore-half and cockpit to aluminum ribbons and reducing the pilot to a mere blood stain.

"Sorry buddy." Michael said, not noticing that the third had lined up and fired a burst ahead of him. By the time Michael heard the resounding rattle that was synonymous with a 20mm rotary cannon, he heard the sound of slugs striking aluminum, and felt his aircraft become sluggish. "Damn, Kaiser I've got a few holes in my fuselage."

"Goodbye Asher!" Kurtz's third position closed on Michael's wounded fighter, with the intent to kill. "Kurtz 3, Fox… **What!?**" He looked down as Kaiser blasted passed him, he was about to let out a sigh of relief when he heard a terrible yell.

"**Look out! RRRAAH!**"

Then he felt nothing, the wing of Kurtz's fifth position connected with his cockpit, smashing him into a blood pulp, and ripping off the wingtip of the fifth plane which was supersonic upon impact. The other two had to break in order to dodge the shrapnel.

The fifth pilot found quick that he could not eject because of his aircraft's orientation, so he pulled at the controls, and when he was able to eject, he pulled the lever. The canopy was blown and he was shot from the craft… only to find himself less than fifty feet from the ground. He made no sound, nor did he even reach for the chute release, he only closed his eyes.

The fighter hit the sand with such force that it was obliterated, it's aluminum fuselage and powerful engines were cut down to shards and strips no larger than a pencil lead. Then he, with the same momentum smashed into the ground at well beyond terminal velocity not far from the living pilot, he felt no pain.

The one pilot who had made it shielded herself as a crimson red explosion of blood, vaporized viscera, sand, and bone which had been reduced to mere hair thin splinters was thrown into the air, showering her with the remains of a fellow pilot, one who she knew personally. She immediately doubled over and dry gagged, as pilots aren't supposed to eat before flying.

"Just two left…" Alex said to himself.

One of the remaining Kurtz fighters began to close distance on Alex; when he found himself in range, he began to fire his vulcan.

"C'mon, my dad's air force can do better than that!" he taunted the enemy as he easily dodged the cannon fire.

"Kaiser!" The pilot found himself at a loss, he knew that Asher was a defector, but Alexander. "You traitor!" The pilot was burning with rage, he gunned the throttle and flew straight at Alex. "I'll have your goddamn head!"

"Riiight." Alex hit the brakes and pulled up, slamming the fighter completely 120 degrees of his heading. The fighter actually continued it's flight path, slowing it down quickly, until he hit the afterburners and deviated from his original flight path, just in time to dodge the fire of the Falchion. The enemy fighter shot passed, and Alex completed the cobra maneuver, bringing his fighter back to level flight. The missile lock tone sounded and he fired a missile, straight up one of the engines of his enemy.

"W-**What the****Hell!?**" The pilot felt the impact, but couldn't believe it, he had lost an engine and the ability to fight back, but he could still fly. "Dammit, my fighter's damaged, I'm bugging out!" he said as he turned tail and ran back to the east.

"So you're going to let him live?" Michael asked, then he got the response.

"It's not honorable to shoot down a wounded fighter." He dodged a missile from the last enemy. "They can't fight back."

"You traitorous bastard!" The last fighter had a lock for a heat seeker, but Alex did a similar maneuver to the cobra, only he brought his engines to full.

The enemy pilot slowed down, waiting for Alex to finish the cobra maneuver, but he failed to realize that it was different.

Alex's Vu-37 Drakhen slammed so hard and fast that it flew backwards for a second, just long enough for him lo launch an active radar guided missile at the last Kurtz fighter. He watched the rear half of the Falchion turn into a fireball, and then completed his flip maneuver by bringing his aircraft back around to level flight. "That's a kill."

The last pilot ejected quickly, and watched his fighter spiral down to the desert below. "Goddamnit… Hey Vanya, you ok down there?"

"I'm… fine." The blood soaked pilot sighed, taking off the drenched harnesses, and flight suit. "Looks like we'll have to wait for a pick-up."

--- Lynx ---

The flight deck commander say in a lawn char that he had brought with him, and sipped on a glass of water whilst listening to some music.

"Hey, ummm Commander." One of the ground crew roused him from his relaxed form. "Two fighters are closing from the east, saying that they are Veldtian defectors."

"Tell them that they can't land here, our deck isn't big enough."

As the commander said that, he was startled by the sound of Asher landing on the deck and stopping quickly. He quickly opened his canopy and jumped out, but was greeted by Marines with C-68 Modular rifles. "Sup guys." He smiled and reached for the sky.

The commander sighed and walked over to Michael. "Stand down." He commanded the marines. "My crewman said defectors. Where is the other one?"

Michael pointed at Alex's Drakhen, which was flying circles around the Lynx. "That's him."

The commander sighed again, "We have a temporary runway just north of here for transport planes, He should be able to land there."

"Did you get that Alex?" Michael spoke into his mask. "There is a runway for transport planes just north of here. You can land over there."

"Tell him I said thanks, my plane is almost out of fuel." He flew by one last time and tipped his wing to them

"Alex says thanks." He told the commander; then opened up some of the panels on his WOLFEN3. "Well shit… I may need some help with this." He said as he looked at the damage.

Alex walked away from his fighter with his hands up, like Michael he was greeted by armed marines. He sighed as he was escorted to the lynx at gunpoint.

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A/N: Sorry about the hiatus, but I was at a loss of what to write for the time being. About the Veldtian fighters, I had a hard time coming up with a name for them so I just changed the names from Sukhoi Su series, same with MiL, which is a change to the MiG… Oddly enough, MiL is a helicopter designation.


	14. Chapter 12: Cold Embrace

Disclaimer: Starfox is copyright to Nintendo… and governments belong to their respected founders… not me, I just use them… only my original characters, countries, etc. belong to me.

AN: Some people may find this chapter… Blasphemous… to say the least. But just remember the other chapters that were… similar.

FYI: There should be a time difference when it comes to areas, however another time unit is Zulu time, which is the same all around the world being based on the time at the prime meridian.

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Chapter Twelve: Cold embrace

--- Lynx, V/STOL deck--- March 1st, 2756. 1200 hours

Michael was busy trying to fix his WOLFEN when someone tapped him on the shoulder, "C'mon all I asked for was some fabricated aluminum…" He spun around, and found himself gazing straight down the barrel of a Mark 1 blaster pistol. "Shit…"

"So… what's the poor little husky doing here?" Raymond smirked as she held the muzzle of the weapon within an inch of Michael's eye.

"Hey I'm a defector! I'm one of the good guys!" He said, He wasn't going to try the same thing on her as he did on Wolf.

"I don't trust you." She began to pace around him, her weapon still pointed at his head. "After all, you are a close friend of Mr. O'Donnell"

Michael suddenly looked serious. "Was… he tried to kill me not too long ago. I'm also the informant that gave you the information about the attack on the Academy."

"An informant doesn't do much good if they aren't still in the country of which they are getting the information from." She began to squeeze the trigger.

"Cut it out Raymond…" Colonel Newman walked onto the deck; following close behind him was Alexander Khrushchev, whom was still decked in his black and red flight suit. "What he says is the truth, the informant went by the callsign Cipher, who you were about to silence is that Cipher."

Raymond holstered her weapon and faced the Colonel, "So who is that serpent that is following you?"

Before the Colonel could speak, Alex respectfully identified himself "I am Alexander Lamar Khrushchev. Former Veldtian Air Force, 7th detachment, 24th Air wing, sixth position of the Crimson Knights for a year."

"Kind of young to be a pilot, don't you think?" Fox was within earshot when Alex identified himself. He had followed Jennifer to the upper deck, but not closely.

"Being the son of the Veldtian premier has it's advantages." Alex shrugged.

Raymond reacted to Alex's confession by quickly drawing her blaster, aiming it at him, and pulling the trigger… however, a swift grab from Fox caused her to miss Alex by a couple of inches. "McCloud! What the hell are you doing?" She glared at him.

"Keeping you from making a grave mistake." Fox sighed. "You ok Alex? Alex?" The cobra had ran behind the WOLFEN to keep from being shot by Jennifer.

"Damn! She's more ruthless than Wolf!" Newman Looked over at Alex, whom had balled up behind the landing gear of the WOLFEN.

"**That's it! That little snake is dead!**" Raymond began to stomp over to Alex, but Fox, Newman, and Asher had grabbed her. "Let me **go**!"

"Cool it already!" Fox said.

"Damn, woman! Chill!" Newman spouted

"I think Alex hit a soft spot there." Michael sighed.

"What did I say?" Alex questioned, only to be answered by a flurry of curses from Raymond.

--- Lynx, Conference room--- 1230 hours

Alex sat on the opposite side of the room from Raymond, two armed guards stood beside him. He kept a wide eyed stare on her.

Raymond was also guarded, she sat at her chair with a solid death glare on Alex, which was beginning to creep him out.

"All right… May I have your attention, we just received a message from General Pepper regarding an attack on Port Allen… He requested that we send in fighters to intercept a flight of bombers." Colonel Newman sighed heavily as he spoke to the small group. "Actually this message was relayed to us by Xavier, he specifically asked for your help Fox."

"… What?" Fox's ears perked up.

During Operation Black Raven, Cobalt had dropped the nuclear devices… the EMP from the devices had fried their weapon systems, so to rearm them is useless, even with a fresh loadout they still read as Winchester, so they are grounded until they get the replacement circuit boards for their fighters. The only operable air wing that we have right now is Blackjack, and we are short by three fighters there. Yours was damaged on landing and is missing a G-diffuser, Furball's was damaged by ground fire, T-bone's port side control surfaces were damaged by a SAM… And well that leaves Jackal's fighter, He should be arriving…"

The sound of a VTOL touching down on the deck could be heard outside.

"That must be him." Fox said.

"Well… there you have it." Newman shrugged.

"Actually, there is some more information, which I was unable to send seeing as I was being watched… the bomber flight consists of six Tukhoi Tu-32 "Kodiak" bombers retrofitted into gunships, and one of the four Tukhoi Tu-120 "Atronoch", Strato Fortresses… Even if we shoot them down, wherever that Atronoch crashes will be uninhabitable." Michael said.

"What?" All of the people whom were present shifted their eyes toward Michael

"This Atronoch that I am speaking of is armed with one large bomb, full of a biological agent. The agent is however sensitive to temperatures of over 900 degrees centigrade, and are heavily aerobic, they cant live one second without a steady supply of oxygen either from their symbiotic relationship with the algae in which it is stored with or the atmosphere, so a single thermobaric bomb could neutralize it."

"So what you're saying is once the Atronoch is downed, a follow up attack with a Fuel Air Explosive would render it harmless?" Newman asked, but Michael answered back pessimistically.

"Only if the canister is damaged on impact with the ground, so we'll have to destroy the bombers engines or wings. At no time can the fuselage be fired upon. Then after it crashes the FAEB would have to be dropped no less than thirty seconds after the bomber crashes." Michael said darkly.

An analyst quickly questioned Michael "But wouldn't the bomber crashing into the ground produce an explosion hot enough to burn off the oxygen and neutralize it?" but he quickly shook his head "No."

"The Atronoch is designed to run off of a water derived fuel, It runs a tremendous amount of electricity though water to separate it into a gas mixture of hydrogen and oxygen, which are burned by the turbine engines to turn the turboprops to produce thrust and the water is recycled back to the fuel tanks. Since the fuel tanks hold water, and not aviation fuel, a crashing Atronoch isn't a fiery explosion at all."

"I see…"

"Well, seeing as we have what… three usable aircraft." Newman was cut off as Jose entered the conference room.

"What's up homes!" Jose looked around the room, Alex was like WTF? And Michael did a double take.

"**What the hell is Wolf doing here?**" Alex stared at Jose, who laughed.

"Heh, Wolf? Hey I may look like him but you see, no exactamente. Mi llamo Jose Williams, no Wolf O'Donnell. I come from the former republic of Espania."

"Oooook" Alex and Asher said in unison.

"Well anyway, get going people… that damned thing isn't going to shoot down itself."

--- Lynx VTOL deck. --- 1245 hours

"Hey Fox, Alex is already heading over to his Drakhen, It would be wise that you follow suit." The flight deck commander said to him, as Michael began to take off, with some armor plates missing because he couldn't put them on in time. "But before you take off, Jose wants to tell you one last thing, He's waiting over by his fighter."

"Understood." Fox said as he walked over to Jose's fighter, which he would be borrowing for this mission.

"Hey Fox, Before you go I want you to know something." He glanced over at Fox.

"What's that?" Fox asked.

"If my fighter comes back with one scratch… One scratch! I swear." He said whilst doing a hand motion that looks like a cleaver on a chopping block.

"Okay, and that's supposed to mean?" Fox asked as he climbed into the cockpit.

"Figure it out, amigo." He laughed and walked away "¡buena suerte!" (Good luck!)

_Whatever man…_ Fox thought as he closed the canopy. "Alright Asher, ready to get this over with?"

"Yeah… oh and McCloud, remember, don't fire at the fuselage." Michael warned.

"Understood." He replied.

--- Corneria, 132 miles east of Port Allen --- 0410 hours their time March 2nd

The three fighters had been airborne for over two hours, but passed over many time zones, the distance between Veldtia's border and Port Allen was immense to say the least, being quite literally on the other side of Corneria compared to Kaznoph, the Capital of Veldtia which was about 200 miles inland from Zeram Beach, during the flight, they had to radio a few nearby air force bases to send KC-90 Aerotankers as escort to refuel Alex's Drakhen during the trip… which would bring up the question, why would Veldtia attack something so far in Cornerian territory?

Fox asked that very question as they reached the border of Corneria. He wasn't answered immediately either.

"Port Allen is known to house the Abel defense platform, a station consisting of several nuclear reactors, and power plants connected to several building sized capacitors connected to one of the largest gauss cannons in existence, a massdriver capable of putting a 10kilogram aluminum slug through a line of capital ships, which makes sense as Port Allen is one of the largest spaceports on the surface of the planet… the massdriver is also capable of pivoting to such a degree and is so accurate, it can shoot down a fighter from over 1,000 kilometers away." Michael answered longwindedly, obviously what he said wasn't off the top of his head.

"How do you know all of this?" Alex asked.

"I have an open connection with every military network on the planet, from schematics, to dossiers, armaments, to structural constitution. My onboard computer is also capable of estimating the structural integrity of both enemy and friendly assets."

"I see… Slippy had a similar system on his Arwing when he worked alongside us, that was before I disbanded StarFox and began work as an instructor."

"Speaking of Slippy, his dossier says that he is currently the CEO of Project Abel, it seems that the Abel gauss cannon is his design." Michael said to Fox.

"Heh… Looks like he's leading a pretty successful life." Fox said admirably, but his face twisted as he noticed the radar giving off a very odd signature. "Hey Michael… you getting this?"

"Yeah Fox… Look straight ahead."

"The largest atmospheric bomber, only four of them are in existence." Alex said coldly. "The Atronoch… each one has been named after one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. They say that each one is equipped for different kinds of weapons which reflect the given name."

Fox lifted his gaze from the radar, and his eyes locked on a massive, black aircraft, which was easily seen being back dropped by the morning twilight around the aircraft were much smaller bomber escorts which looked like dots from where they were located, The Atronoch was true to it's name, a hulking monster of an aircraft with a wingspan of several hundred meters. "Plague… This plane must be Plague."

"Yes… it's plague. And we have company, three fighters, closing in at 20,000 meters."

The enemy formation met with Fox's ragtag bunch about ten miles from the Atronoch. Two black Vukhoi Vu-40 Ravens and one very strange looking white fighter, In fact… It wasn't even Veldtian.

"On my signal, break formation… I think they mean business." Fox ordered.

"Roger… Just say it. I've chosen my prey." Michael responded.

"Understood, Mr. McCloud. On your mark." Alex's eyes shot back and forth from Fox's fighter to the enemy's.

The missile bay opened on the right enemy fighter, a solid lock registered on Alex. "Fox! He's got a lock…. Wait… something isn't right."

"Fox. We have to break before they fire… I don't like this." Michael spout as a lock registered on him. "They are still over 10,000 meters away… This doesn't make sense… I don't know of any missile with that kind of lock range."

Fox focused on the lead plane. "Wait for it…"

"Wait for what? We're just gonna get waxed if we keep this heading!"

"What the hell? That damn thing just flashed!" Michael yelled as a blue burst of light seemingly materialized ahead of them. "Break!"

"Whoa! That's too bright!" Alex banked starboard, and pulled hard on the stick. He felt the air around him grow extremely hot, but as he got farther from the glow it cooled down quickly.

"Son of a bitch!" Fox pulled up hard, His eyes glanced at the temperature read on his fighter… The outside temp had went from a mere 23 degrees Celsius to a monstrous one hundred million, then back to 23 in a millionth of a second. Fox looked back at a blue ball that seemed to come out of nowhere. _Plasma charge cannon… That one was more energetic than the late Great Fox's cannons._ "Michael, Alex, Don't let that lead plane get a bead on you… Fire at will."

"It's about damn time!" Michael hit afterburners and went for the plane on the left, which had the same idea as it was heading straight for him. "Come on, Bitch!" He taunted the enemy fighter after he got a lock on it's frequency… however there was no answer, there wasn't even any background noise… just total silence.

Alex found himself being chased by one of the Ravens… As if it followed the plasma ball, which no living being could possibly had done. "Yeah… just stay right there…" He prepared to do the famed Cobra maneuver.

Fox looked around for the lead fighter. It didn't register on radar; he looked everywhere… but the white aircraft was nowhere to be seen.

"What's the matter McCloud?" A chilly voice registered through Fox's headset… "Can't find me?" The voice was oddly familiar however.

"Where are you?" Fox asked, but he was answered by a shadow above his fighter. The unknown fighter positioned itself perfectly inverted above Fox's fighter.

A pale furred, red eyed vixen looked down upon him… her features were almost identical to… _Krystal? No… __**That's Not Her.**_

"Whats wrong, McCloud?" She scowled tauntingly as she said his name. "Are you afraid that your plaything is no longer living? Oh don't worry my boy… She's… right… here…" The white vixen pointed at her forehead and smiled.

"Shut up…" Fox said, eyes locked with the dark eyes of his enemy. "You aren't Krystal…"

She rubbed her chin in thought, and then spouted "You're right… I'm not Krystal… She isn't even here… She isn't even alive…"

"What?"

"Oh my boy… The way she kept screaming for you when she was in so much pain… It makes me so… Mhhh." She taunted him further, hitting a soft spot like a sledgehammer.

Fox said nothing as a retort… He locked his eyes back forward, and hit the brakes, he armed his missiles… but he noticed something. She had purposely positioned herself directly in front of him, as if she was trying to be shot down. _Hold on Fox… something is terribly wrong._

"Aren't you going to shoot?" She asked coldly.

"No… I won't. I won't kill you"

"Then die… lover." She said, giving Fox a subtle hint, but one that he understood… It was Krystal; something had control of her. After she spoke, she had done a snap flip and brought herself behind him.

Fox maneuvered wildly, trying to keep her off his tail. _What in the hell do I do now?_ He thought, trying to keep her from getting a bead on him.

Michael was having a hard time with the fighter that he was chasing, every time he had a lock, or leaded to get a Vulcan burst off, the craft would dodge him as if it was reading him like an open book. "What the hell is this?"

"Mortal, I'm your worst nightmare…" The enemy pilot finally responded.

"Mortal? Who are you to call me a mortal?" Michael raised an eyebrow _This guy thinks he's a god? Pfft!_

"I am a god… now die!" The enemy taunted and snap turned twice, bringing himself dead behind Michael, the maneuver would have killed any normal person.

"So you were reading my mind… This is some crazy shit."

"Quiet worm, and d..." The message garbled as a stream of tracers tore through the Raven.

Alexander had seemed to come out of nowhere, and had fired a sustained burst into one of the Ravens, Several of the shots went through the cockpit… After Alexander's attack pass, the Raven turned into a ball of blue flame. "Thanks Alex… That's twice you saved me."

"Yeah, yeah… Get this guy off of me! I've tried the Cobra, the Drakhen maneuver, **None of them work!**"

"Well that's not good." Michael said coolly as he inverted and pulled up.

"Stay still Khrushchev! To silence a heretic would bring me great honor!" A serpentine voice blasted from Alex's radio.

"Heretic? What century are you from? Fuck you!" He did a risky maneuver , one that rapidly onset multiple Gs, and put him a position that would cause him to black out in a few moments even though he was using the breathing technique to keep him from succumbing. "Leave… me….. alone……."

"Stop Alex!" Michael intercepted the enemy fighter, and filled it full of plasma from his cannons as he was running low on solid rounds.

"Beaten… by an animal?" The last words from the pilot were oddly calm. "I'll get you one day, Heretic." His plane erupted into a blue fireball like the last one, no sign of an ejection.

"Alex… Mike… Go after the Atronoch… I'll hold the last one off." Fox was straining, trying hard to keep Krystal from receiving the upper hand.

"Are you sure?" Alex asked.

"Just go." Fox commanded.

"Understood… Good luck McCloud." Michael responded as he changed heading to the Atronoch.

"Oh… one on one?" The pilot of the unidentified craft taunted. "I always knew you to be that kind of fox."

Fox shrugged… "Whatever. Foursomes aren't as fun."

"Too bad…" She continued to chase Fox…

--- Premier's office, Kaznoph, Veldtia --- 1510 hours their time March 1st

The Premier was searching through documents, company files, and eventually dossiers, until he made pay-dirt… The file on the Fortunian husky, Michael Asher.

"I see you found the traitor…" Guitrez, having appeared through his dark void that he uses so often, spoke to Khrushchev.

"I trusted him…" The Cobra spat "But not only did he turn, but so did my only son…"

"I understand that you are upset, and as we speak my newest addition is currently engaged with the traitors and, her… how do you say it… love… interest?" He said, with a hint of amusement in his voice.

Khrushchev looked Damarus directly in his cold, dead eyes. "And this is important to me why?"

"Plague, the Atronoch fitted for biological warfare is in danger of being shot down by those three pilots."

"And I care why? Isn't that what we want?" Khrushchev stood and began to pace, his eyes fixed on Damarus.

"What if I told you that your key to winning this war, is actually an enemy?" He asked the Premier inquisitively

"You have my attention…"

---Skies of Corneria--- 0412 March 2nd

Fox had been easily separated from his ragtag group. The Atronoch was nowhere to be seen, he had lost sight of it minutes ago…

"Fox." Krystal spoke softly to him… "Do you love me?"

He looked around, her fighter was nowhere to be seen, and she didn't register on radar, unless she was directly in front of him, where his radar was strongest. "Why are you asking such a question? You know better than I do."

"Just answer the question… Do you really love me?" She insisted, her fighter still nowhere to be seen.

"Yes… Krystal…" Fox sighed, and he felt the air in the cockpit grow very cold.

"F… mo…"

The garbled message failed to catch Fox's attention.

"Fox Move! The enemy is behind you!" Asher yelled into the comms. but Fox didn't hear, something was jamming the message.

"I… I want you to do something for me…"

"Yes…" His breath became misty as the air became frigid in the cockpit. "What do you want me to do, Krystal?"

"Krystal?" Asher was in range to intercept the messages. "Who is…"

"Fox… I… I trust…" As she was speaking a blue glow behind Fox's fighter got his attention, and as he looked back, he came face to face with a ghostly pale figure whose arms ripped through the seat, clasped onto him with a deathgrip, and ripped his hands from the controls. "…that you'll do this for me."

"Fox, move!" Asher's signal finally broke through, but to no avail.

"Krystal! Don't do this!" He yelled.

"…Die for me." She said in the same calm voice as she depressed the trigger that would seal the fate of anyone whom was unlucky enough to be in front of her fighter. "Die for me!"

A blue stream enveloped Fox's fighter, and as the heat became unbearable, he felt himself being ripped from existence.

_Is this what it's like to die?_ He thought as his vision faded.

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End file.
